Harassment
by mommywrites
Summary: The city of Paris supports an action that should teach the students appropriate social behaviour. The current educational material in the subject is deemed outdated and inappropriate for the city in the time of Hawk Moth, Mayura, akumas and sentimonsters. The low number of experts in the field means the students have to prepare the presentations and act in the sketches themselves.
1. Chapter 1

The project

Ms Bustier just finished taking attendance when Marinette entered. The girl was not red in the face from running nor out of breath this time.

"Thank you for joining us, Marinette." Ms Bustier greeted.

Lila had her sly smile, she expected Marinette will be marked for being late. Chloe scoffed. Adrien smiled for the greeting. Alya mouthed 'girl'. Nino nodded his head in greeting. The rest of the class mostly ignored her as they were used to the fact she would enter the classroom at the last moment.

"Are you finished with the meeting already?" Ms Bustier continued to speak to Marinette with her usual smile.

"Yes Ms Bustier." Marinette smiled back to the teacher.

"Can we go through it now?" The teacher asked kindly.

"Oh yes, in fact I would prefer to do it while it is still fresh." Marinette smiled to the class. She noticed Lila glared in her direction. Well, Marinette had a piece of news and she wanted to share.

"Okay, please go to your seat." The teacher motioned and continued to speak. "There were several issues in the social behaviour of the students in this school that had been considered problematic over the past few years. So the students are required to learn what these problematic behaviours are and how to treat them. This should lead us to better understand each other and have a class that is a group of students full of love and understanding for each other." The teacher spoke in her usual loving tone.

Chloe examined her nails. Sabrina was there to pay attention for her. Max was busy with Markov. Kim and Alix were making bets. Nathaniel was drawing. Rose beamed at the teacher full of love and understanding. Juleka was … she did not produce any reaction visible to the naked eye, nor audible to a human ear. Ivan and Mylenne held hands below their desk. Alya was on her phone checking her blog. Nino nodded. Marinette beamed at the teacher and Adrien was puzzled.

"I will ask Marinette to present what are the subjects and how are they going to be covered this year." My Bustier finished her speech.

"So we had the meeting this morning." Marinette opened her notebook. "We are expected to chose two students who will make a presentation about the inappropriate behaviour and then we should discuss what to do about it."

"We do not get visiting teachers like we did in former years?" Ms Bustier asked while she did not hide her surprise.

"No, they are busy with all the akuma victims and the information is passed more efficiently if the students get involved themselves." Marinette replied quickly. "The students who will prepare the presentation will consult the experts at a meeting and also explain what is wrong and how to deal with that with advice from the experts. The experts can't be available during school hours nor for each class separately."

"Okay, this is clearly understandable and beneficial so now we get to chose who will make the presentation." The teacher continued in her usual cheerful tone. Marinette raised her hand.

"Ms Bustier, perhaps I should first clarify the obligations." The girl did not want any attention seekers involved. "There should be at least two students selected per class, they are expected to attend two meetings after the usual school hours and extracurricular activities. The meeting will take place with other presenters from other classes. The students should prepare at least two short sketches per subject that should be approved by the experts and the presentation that should be up to half an hour long and present it."

"Great, so who do we chose?" Ms Bustier said in a cheerful tone. But the faces she could see were not so eager.

It was additional work outside of the normal school hours. And who ever gets chosen was to prepare a long presentation and present it. That did not look tempting for anyone to volunteer.

Lila raised a hand.

Marinette felt her stomach sunk down while what ever she swallowed for breakfast wanted to go up.

"I think we should chose Marinette. She is our class representative and she is already familiar with the subject. I would volunteer myself but I am so busy with the charity work already as it is. You know Prince Ali just ..." Lila continued talking but Ms Bustier decided to interrupt her.

Marinette sighed, yeah, she could not wait to get more obligations on herself, she was Ladybug and now a guardian and a class representative and this was an additional burden that she needed just like a fish needed a bicycle.

"Okay, we have one candidate and that is Marinette." Ms Bustier exclaimed. "Anybody else?"

"Actually, I think Marinette is an excellent proposal." Chloe spoke absent mindedly while she glanced towards the teacher from her nails. Sabrina nodded on her side.

"Thank you Chloe. Anybody else?" Ms Bustier acknowledged the statement. But she was met with heavy silence that spoke volumes.

Adrien was thinking. This was additional work. But it was additional school work. By definition it was work done in school. That meant if he volunteered, he was to spend more time outside the mansion and out from the photo shoots. And he would work with Marinette. That looked like a much better prospect than spending time alone in his room or even worse a photo shoot with Lila. He was about to raise his hand and volunteer.

"Um, perhaps you should first hear what are the two proposed subjects." Marinette added quietly. She hoped beyond hope that someone might want to remove her as a candidate once they heard what the proposed subjects were.

"Yes, we should. But I would say we have already chosen one presenter and that is you Marinette." Ms Bustier continued.

"So the two subjects are bullying and sexual harassment." Marinette blushed severely as she pretended she had to read those from her notebook. Adrien turned around towards her, but she stared at her notebook intently and did not notice. "We are supposed to cover each one with a presentation and we are allowed to chose two examples of our own that we would like to show but it has to be approved by the experts."

She finished speaking but never once looked up, not even when she was finished.

"So who wants to cover these two subjects with Marinette?" The teacher asked full of positive energy. But she was realistic and hoped to get one volunteer instead telling someone to do it.

She was met with one blushing girl, the rest of the class full of 'I have no time for this' negative energy and one blonde boy who was bouncing in his seat and raised his hand. Other students looked anywhere but forward.

"Yes Adrien?" Ms Bustier asked full of hope.

Lila glared towards the boy. Chloe huffed. The rest of the class raised their eyes towards the boy, many of them raised their eyebrows too.

"I want to do it." The boy exclaimed eager to be approved.

Marinette stared at the back of the boy fully mortified as she tried to comprehend what was going on.

"He would be great choice to do that Ms Bustier." Alya grinned while her mind was scheming.

"Whatever you want to do I support you dude." Nino smiled towards his best bro.

"Yeah!" Alix exclaimed and raised her fist into the air.

"Considering Adrien was a voice actor, he is the best choice with 98 percent confidence." Max exclaimed.

Kim cheered just to be louder than Alix. He was not entirely sure what was going on as he was exchanging messages with Ondine throughout the whole process.

Rose cooed. Juleka muttered whatever approval she had.

Mylenne nodded and Ivan copied her action.

"Excellent, Adrien and Marinette are our choice to cover the social behaviour issues for our class. I trust the two of you will agree on your schedule. Now we can continue with the normal school day." The teacher announced cheerfully.

"Great, when do we start?" Adrien asked with a huge grin on his face as he turned towards Marinette.

"Um" She stared at his face, his beautiful face with warm green eyes and wide sincere smile that she saw so rarely in the last few weeks and she smiled back. She was supposed to say something. _Brain give me words. No, not that gibberish. Oh yes, I have notes in my notebook._ She looked to her notebook.

"We have the first meeting tomorrow afternoon, we should chose what to act before that." The girl spoke quietly.

"Okay, I will ask Nathalie to send me my lunch and to keep my afternoon free after the fencing." Adrien smiled. "That is, if you are available?" He added.

"Um yes." She smiled back.

"Great, see you then." Adrien turned back to the teacher.

Ms Bustier tolerated them because of the assignment they just got, but she had already started teaching and both teens were expected to have their history books opened at the right page.

"I have no idea why would you volunteer for that crap Adriekins." Chloe huffed not so silently nor subtly that the teacher heard her and gave her a warning look while she explained what the students were supposed to do.


	2. Chapter 2 - Choices

Choice

The lunchtime arrived. Adrien requested and got free time for the project as well and a pdf of the parental agreement signed by his father. He grinned, mission accomplished.

"I was thinking. We can't eat in the library. We should eat quickly and then just meet in the library." Adrien proposed.

"I haven't packed my lunch this morning." Marinette dreaded going to the school canteen as she expected the next Lila show. "I will wait for you in the library."

"Were you planing to have your lunch at home?" Adrien asked quietly.

Marinette nodded shyly. But then an idea occurred to her, she spoke before she thought about it more.

"Um, actually, you could come to my place." Marinette muttered completely red in her face.

"Are you sure?" Adrien smiled so widely she could not possibly change her mind.

And she didn't.

So they went to the bakery. Adrien picked up a plastic container with his lunch from his driver on the way.

"Sorry about this, my father insists I eat what his dietitian prescribed." The boy apologized.

In her head Marinette tried to remember how many posters with Adrien she still had on the walls in her room. She kept one picture above her bed, it was mixed with the photos of other friends, so it should be fine. She also had that photo of him in the hat she designed and a few more of her designs he modelled before and after the Reflecta incident, she was not looking where she was going.

She stumbled, he caught her, but his plastic box fell to the pavement.

"Are you okay, Marinette?" The boy asked with a gentle smile.

"Oh, I am so sorry Adrien, your lunch." Marinette cried and picked up the box quickly. She was raising so fast that Adrien grabbed her head not to hit his nose in the process. His hands landed on her shoulders when they both straightened up.

"I am so sorry, your lunch, it is ruined." Marinette cried the apology again.

"There is no harm done." Adrien smiled. "It is just a salad."

They walked through the side door and Marinette greeted her father on her way up. But Tom asked them to stop and gave them a box with treats.

"You can have these today. Your mother and me will eat later. Lot of customers, one oven malfunctioned. Nice to see you son. Take this, now off you go." Tom pushed the box into Adrien's arms and the boy practically hugged it while he still held the small plastic container in his hand.

Marinette asked Adrien to put the food on the table in the kitchen and washed her hands. He followed her instructions and sat on a chair while she bought out two plates.

"You can open the boxes." She said as she tried to reach the plates. But they were high and she struggled.

"May I?" Adrien stepped closer and reached the plates for her.

"You want these?" He took out two plates. She nodded. He stood so close. She blushed.

"Um these are the ugly ones." Marinette frowned at the box. She could not give ugly pastry to a boy who was used to having everything perfect, who was so perfect himself.

"Ugly?" Adrien raised his eyebrows. All the pastry in that box looked delicious.

"You know, those that do not look so nice to be sold." Marinette smiled sheepishly.

"They look amazing to me." Adrien smiled and reached with his hand. "Um can I?" The boy smiled.

"Of course, help yourself." She shrugged and took one piece of pastry after him. They were both eating their second or third piece of pastry when Marinette noticed the grey box.

"What about your salad? I thought you are not allowed to eat ..." Marinette asked the boy.

"You won't tell my father or Nathalie?" Adrien pretended to be pleading desperately.

"No." Marinette laughed. "I won't." She waved her head.

"Okay, about that presentation." Adrien started.

"We are supposed to get some material tomorrow for the presentation, I have some notes here. But the important thing is that we have to prepare a few scenes that would illustrate the inappropriate behaviour. They need to read and approve the proposals." The girl spoke with confidence and determination, that was the same practised tone she used that morning on the meeting in school.

"So we chose what we want to show?" Adrien beamed.

"Well it has to be approved by the experts tomorrow." She replied. "They used to have the same dull video that nobody connected with real life so I was thinking it would be better to give examples that we actually encountered in school."

"That was your idea? It is amazing." The boy smiled gently.

"Um, thank you." She blushed, again.

"So we have two subjects. Bullying and ..." She took a deep breath while her face turned dark red. "… sexual harassment." And she breathed out.

Then she covered her face with her hands and groaned. There was a long moment of silence after that. It was that word again and she had to say it in front of her crush.

"What is wrong Marinette?" Adrien asked gently.

"Um, it is just, we should have the ideas by tomorrow and I knew what I wanted to do with the first but I have no clue what to present for the second." She was talking quickly while she covered her red face. Well she was talking in whole sentences and did not mix up her words.

"Do we have some guidelines?" Adrien asked tentatively.

"Yes" she exclaimed loudly. "We have, here are two sheets, one lists the events that would illustrate bullying." Marinette held out a sheet. "And this is for the other one." Yes, great, do not pronounce the word and everything was going to be okay, right?

"Can I see those?" Adrien asked and took the second sheet.

The boy was reading the list.

"Repeated unwanted touching, unwanted advances?, repeated attempts to forcibly kiss someone (even on the cheek), unwanted touching?" The boy was surprised. "That is also sexual harassment?"

"Um, yes, you did not know?" Marinette raised her eyebrows.

Adrien waved his head.

"That is valid only if it makes you feel uncomfortable, if you do not want it and that person continues to do so." Marinette said quietly as she pointed to the clarification. "Basically it is okay if you agree to it, but they should ask you first and you should agree."

Adrien was very serious and lost in his thoughts. He was so used to everyone touching him, people he worked with, people who he did not like, people who he met for the first time, virtually anyone.

Marinette let him be as she considered the other list. She had already noted several events she wanted to present to the class. There were several 'Chloe' incidents on the list, and then there was Lila. She was writing the scenario, word for word that would show the class the moment Lila threatened her in the bathroom. She quickly erased the word 'Adrien' and replaced it with 'the boy you like'. She was reading the scenario when she noticed Adrien started making some notes of his own.

Adrien stared at the list for a long time. The things that Chloe and Lila did to him were clearly sexual harassment. He knew now why it made him uncomfortable. He did not have to take it with his polite smile as he was trained all his life. He was going to do something about that.

"You have something?" The boy raised his head and looked at her when he finished writing.

"Um yes, you?" She leaned forward.

"Yes, switch and read?" He proposed and offered his sheet of paper for her notebook.

"Yes, why not." She agreed and they made the switch.

Adrien was reading the conversation Marinette wrote. He was instantly drawn to the event as if he was there and watched two girls where one threatened the other. He wanted to act, he wanted to intervene, he wanted to protect the girl from the bully. The other sketch was something Chloe did so many times to so many different people with so little variation that it was just the perfect choice.

Marinette stared at the sheet of paper where Adrien described several examples. She recognized the first instantly. She saw it regularly, it was when Chloe threw herself onto Adrien and tried to kiss him and called him Adriekins (and he actually used the nickname). The second one described one person who touched the other person the whole time, dug through his belongings, clutched to his arm, it was a series of events that clearly illustrated how Lila behaved with Adrien.

She raised her eyes and saw Adrien grinned at her notebook.

"What?" She asked.

"I like how you depicted Chloe here." Adrien smiled.

"Well we can use some other example." She knew how protective he was about his childhood friend.

"No, no, keep it." The boy had decided he protected Chloe enough. He proposed his own example of her behaviour, it would be hypocritical from him to ask Marinette to remove it.

"What do you think about mine?" Adrien asked eager to know her opinion.

"Um, these are good. But this is also Chloe." She pointed to the top part of the page. He quickly nodded. "And I guess this is Lila?" She asked about the bottom part of the page.

Adrien confirmed. Marinette glared at the paper.

"I want to ask you about this other one." Adrien pointed to the page where Marinette described her interaction with Lila in the girl's bathroom.

Marinette just nodded slowly.

"It is looks so real. You are a great writer Marinette." The boy smiled.

She returned a half hearted smile.

"I mean all the other examples are real. I can take no credit for mine." The boy rambled. But then he noticed her look. "Your first example is also real, I clearly remember it. Your second example … it is also real, isn't it? It happened to you?"

Marinette looked at the table.

"Marinette?" He whispered.

She nodded.

"Who?" He insisted and got on his feet.

"Lila" She whispered.

She felt so small, so low, here she was she just confessed to none other than Adrien Agreste that she was threatened and humiliated by Lila in the girl's bathroom. She stared at the table and waited for him to show his disgust with her.

"Would you like a hug?" He asked with his arms open. He had no clue what else to do. It was written there to ask before the touch, so he did.

She threw herself on him and he held her tight, she held him back.

"When?" Adrien asked after a few moments.

"That day she returned to school." Marinette spoke into his chest. But then she moved away as she thought it would be awkward to keep hugging him. He missed her and held her shoulders.

"What happened after that?" He asked gently. She was still not looking at his face.

"I locked myself into a toilet. Akuma came after me. But I calmed myself down and the violet butterfly left. She was akumatized into Chameleon." Marinette finished. There it was. She said it all.

"I wish you told me that day." Adrien whispered and pulled her back into a hug.

"Is this okay?" He asked after a while. "You know, I have to ask, I do not want you to add me as an example."

"This is okay." She spoke slowly. "You know, we should perhaps provide a positive example too."

"Yeah, I'd like that." He was not sure what he actually agreed to, he just liked this hug. Why nobody just hugged him? They would touch his face and his body. The complete strangers would 'feel his muscles' and 'check the way he was built', not to mention a couple of his own classmates who treated him as an object.

Then an alarm on Marinette's phone rang.

"It is time to go back to school." She told him quietly and they separated.

"Okay, I can come back after fencing?" Adrien asked tentatively.

"Sure." She replied as she collected the plates from the table.

They collected their things and went back to the school. They went out through the bakery and Adrien was treated with another croissant 'for the way', while Marinette announced she expected him back in the afternoon.


	3. Chapter 3 - Practice

Practice

Afternoon classes have passed uneventfully. Adrien kept his eyes opened for Lila, he was ready to protect Marinette this time, he wanted to be her knight in shiny armour. And he also had to feed Plagg on the run as he had little time. He never noticed how Marinette sneaked up cookies to her purse during lunch.

Adrien had a fencing lesson and a duel with Kagami. She won. Again. And she complained that his mind was elsewhere and he was not a worthy opponent.

He knew he wasn't. His mind was occupied with what had happened with Marinette. He remembered his advice to her. He remembered how Lila got her expelled later and he felt guilty.

"What is wrong with you?" Kagami insisted when they met in the locker room.

"It is just, I am working with Marinette on this assignment for school. We are supposed to show how bullies behave and she wrote this sketch, well it was an actual event when one girl from our class, threatened her. And that same day I asked her to do nothing about her, not to expose her bully." Adrien sighed.

Kagami looked at him with disappointment in her eyes.

"You told her to do nothing?" Kagami raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't know." The boy whined.

"But you still gave her advice." She replied flatly.

"And she took my advice. Lila got her expelled." He looked to the side, too ashamed to look at Kagami.

"Of course she took you advice." Kagami waved her head. She knew why Marinette would probably take any advice from him. "How did she get back to school then?" She asked slowly.

"I told Lila to tell another lie and get her back to school." He replied in low voice while he kept staring at the same point on his side.

"Lila." Kagami repeated like a bad word. "In exchange for what?"

"Remember that photo shoot I had with her?" He was so ashamed of his actions.

"Yes?" She asked a bit louder than she intended.

"That was it. I just do not know how she persuaded my father, because I sure did not even try." Adrien waved his head.

Kagami looked away from him. There were no words needed to express her disappointment. Adrien knew, he felt what she was thinking about him, how it radiated from her. Well he was going to do something about that.

"I should go, I have to continue working on that assignment." Adrien took his bag and walked away with a greeting.

Kagami greeted back but did not look at him.

Marinette quickly checked her room, her screen saver, her background wallpaper on the screen, and everything had an appropriate or at least easily explainable amount of photos of Adrien. She ran down into the bakery to help as she often did after school. That reduced the crowd and allowed her parents to take short breaks during the rush hour as many students treated themselves to snacks between school and other activities. She was filling boxes and paper bags with orders while her mother handled the payments. She brought freshly baked pastries from the kitchen and arranged them into the display window. And that is how Adrien found her. She was busy stacking pain au chocolate onto a shelf.

"What would you like to have today?" Sabine asked the next person automatically as she was already tired.

Adrien turned to her with a smile.

"Oh, you want Marinette." Sabine giggled.

Marinette flipped her head towards her mother and crushed the pain au chocolate that she held.

"Maman" She whined while her face was rather pink.

"Well, if she is not too busy?" Adrien suppressed the urge to say anything inappropriate. He did not forget the topic of their assignment.

"Off you go." Sabine told her daughter. "And put that piece in the box." She motioned towards the crushed piece of pastry in her daughter's hand while she let Adrien pass behind the counter.

"Hi Marinette." Adrien greeted.

"Hi Adrien." She breathed out.

"Is that piece ugly now?" He pointed towards her hand.

She nodded.

"Can I save it?" He smiled.

"Sure" She offered him to take it.

Adrien took it with a grin. "I really like them."

"Papa, Adrien is here, we are going up." Marinette announced as she passed through the kitchen. But Tom had different plans.

"Hi son, here, take this with you, I am trying something new and I want your opinion." The huge man gave him a box with muffins. Adrien smiled and took them.

"You will also find other specimens in the box on the table if you do not like those." Tom added while the boy was at the door.

They were both in Marinette's room. Adrien enjoyed the muffins, about six of them, before he noticed Marinette stared at him.

"Sorry." He told her as he noticed the box was now empty.

"That is okay, you were obviously hungry." She replied while she wondered where the boy put all that food because there was no way it was all inside him. He was so slim.

"So what is the plan now, we should put this scripts to practice?" The boy asked tentatively.

"Um yes, we have to explain first that this is a bad example and then show the act and then explain what was wrong there." She was talking quickly and got to her feet.

"Okay, so we read the words first?" He asked and she nodded.

They went through the bully parts. Adrien took the role of the bully. He impersonated Chloe so well that Marinette proposed him to cut down his act.

"Nah, I want to do it the right way." he disregarded her concern.

They did it several times and decided not to change anything. Then Adrien moved to the Lila act. He could impersonate her sly moves and smile so well that Marinette stiffened at first. She was moving backwards and away from him on pure instinct, and he followed as he felt that was something that a bully would do.

"Was it good? Is that how it happened?" Adrien asked gently as he observed her with concern. It was obvious she was shaken. Marinette stared back at him, her eyes wide, her body stiff.

"We do not have to do it if it is too much for you." He breathed out.

"No, we are doing this, it is just, you are so good at it." She whispered back.

Then they moved to the script Adrien wrote, and that was a whole new problem.

"Okay, you know what Chloe does, now do it." Adrien smiled at her and just stood there.

"I … can't." Marinette looked to her feet. Her face was burning. This was something that hurt Adrien and she was about to repeat it. She couldn't do it. Her crush on the boy only contributed to the colour in her cheeks.

"Don't worry, I know why we are doing this, it is okay with me." He encouraged her.

Marinette took a deep breath. It was clear to her. This was needed to end his suffering. That was the point of the whole project. If she does this right, Adrien was about to be saved. And she was Ladybug for a reason.

"oh, Adriekins." She shrieked and threw herself on Adrien but she quickly bounced back before he even had a chance to push her away.

"Okay, you are too quick. You are supposed to cling onto me even when I push you away." He told her. Marinette nodded while she kept staring at the floor.

"Do you want to try again?" He asked with a warm smile.

Marinette clenched her fists and raised her head. It was now or never.

"Oh Adriekins." She screeched again and threw herself onto Adrien. She was hanging off from him but she did not try to kiss him.

Adrien decided that it might be too much to ask Marinette to try and kiss him and that what she did was sufficient. He held her hips and gently pushed her away, far gentler than he ever pushed Chloe, but Marinette practically jumped away.

"Okay, we can work on that." The boy smiled. "How about Lila now?"

"Okay" Marinette quickly grabbed the script to read what was she supposed to do.

"I um I ..." She flailed her hands all around her face as she always did when she was confused, particularly in front of Adrien.

"If it is too much for you, we can try tomorrow." Adrien smiled gently. "But I still have an hour before I have to go."

"How about a game?" Marinette quickly grabbed a console.

"Yes." Adrien exclaimed. The two of them played the game and joked until Adrien's phone rang to notify him that his driver was waiting for him.

Marinette waked down the stairs after him and waved him goodbye.

Adrien walked up and down his room as he read the notes about bullying and sexual harassment.

'If someone asks you to stop and you do not stop, it is wrong.' Then there was 'calling names' and 'unwanted nicknames'. And then there was more and more of things that he found familiar.

"Plagg" Adrien called on his kwami. "When Chat Noir flirts with Ladybug, is that sexual harassment?"

"I thought that was what you people do when you like somebody." Plagg retorted.

"She told me not to … more than once." Adrien sighed.

"She just rolls her eyes, she likes it." Plagg replied.

"But … what if she does not like that? She asked me to stop calling her Bugaboo so many times and I'm still doing that." The boy was devastated. Was he really hurting his lady?

"I prefer Camembert, it never tells me to stop." Plagg retorted.

"When I try to kiss her hand she takes it away." Adrien whispered.

"And then she flicks your nose, what is the difference?" The tiny god of destruction hovered away as if he was insulted.

Adrien stared at the papers with the notes that he got from Marinette.

"Does it say anything about Camembert in those notes?" Plagg asked as he hovered back and looked at the notes curiously.

"No" The boy was rather confused with the question.

"So, you see, Camembert is much better than the girls, you can tell it whatever you want and touch it as much as you like." And that was enough for the tiny black cat to hover away and hide in the mini fridge.

Adrien stared at the list, it was clear to him that he crossed the line, he thought about each time Ladybug pushed him away. Sometimes it was playful. Perhaps she did not want to hurt his feelings? Then, sometimes it was her who leaned into him. So she did not mind being close to him. She hugged him more than once.

"Ask first." Adrien pondered the instruction. "But there is no time to ask in the middle of the battle." He whined. He tried to remember every interaction the two of them had, and when she accepted and when she refused, pushed him away and told him to stop. It was not making much sense to the boy.

He decided to ask Marinette about it, once when he thought how to pose the question without giving away his identity.

He could transform, vault over to her rooftop and ask her opinion and advice.

He could visit her as Adrien and play videos from the Ladyblog, he was certain there were plenty of different examples available there, and then he could ask her.

Or, he might ask Ladybug directly, as Chat Noir. That would give him opportunity to apologize too.

He had no time to reach a conclusion. There was an akuma alert.


	4. Chapter 4 - Chemistry

Chemistry

The next morning Marinette was on her feet easily. Even the last night akuma did not disturb her sleep too much. The notification arrived just as she changed into her pyjama. She found Chat Noir already at the spot and they were finished in less than twenty minutes. There was no Bugaboo and no flirting. There was no talk after the battle as both of their miraculouses beeped. Well it was very late in the evening and the battle was over quickly. She did not complain.

"Good morning papa, maman." She greeted as she walked into the bakery.

"Good morning, I packed you lunch for today." Tom greeted and motioned towards a brown paper bag.

She took the extra pastry to add to her lunch bag that was already heavier then usual.

"We put some extra for Adrien since you will be working together on that assignment again." Sabine winked.

"Okay, thank you." Marinette greeted and ran away as she was trying to hide her blush.

"Eek" she squeaked because right there in front of the bakery was a very familiar car.

"Good morning Marinette." Adrien greeted. "I wanted to ask you to walk with you to school, but would you prefer a ride in this drizzle?"

The girl looked around, it was not raining, but the air was full of fine misty droplets that seemed to float around. She quickly nodded and entered the car.

"Thank morning good you Adrien." She spoke as he slid away on the seat and she sat on his place, his warm seat, that he warmed up by sitting on it, on his butt.

_Stop. Just stop. You are doing a presentation on sexual harassment with this boy and you are thinking about his butt. _The poor girl scolded her poor brain while her heart was wild, pumping blood into her face.

"Um, I mean, mood gorning I mean thank you." She quickly stammered.

Adrien reached over and buckled up her seat belt. That did not help her much either.

Then she noticed the paper bag with food.

"Here, my papa packed, for us." She offered without looking at him.

"Thank you. It smells delicious." Adrien beamed toward the bag and reached to take it. "Is everything okay Marinette?" He asked when he noticed she did not move.

"Um, yes." She moved the bag to his side but did not look. Her cheeks were already rather pink.

"Hey." He called gently. She finally turned and saw his eyes. His warm green eyes looked gently at her and she melted.

"Not a morning person." She quickly whispered.

Adrien chuckled.

His bodyguard grunted as they were in front of the school. They both went straight inside and to the classroom. They shared a few pastries before the rest of the class started to enter.

"So I was thinking." Adrien got up with his sheet of paper. "If this is too awkward for you, we can think of other examples."

"No." She squeaked. She was determined to do it, she was determined to help him and save him from those monstrous girls, and there were no selfish reasons behind that (like that awful way she felt when the girls were doing that) no no, no selfish reasons at all, she was not jealous, no. She was not going to be mortified by thinking how now she had to do that to him in front of a full classroom. The fact that she had an excuse to touch him was far less inviting now that she knew he did not like that. She would never hurt him like that.

Adrien raised his eyebrows. He was certain she was uncomfortable to do that. He understood why, she had just explained to him that it was wrong and he understood if she did not want to do it. He knew how he felt when he played his role and Marinette winced and stepped back.

"It is important for you." She looked at him with determination in her eyes that was so familiar but he could not quite place. Well he saw it before, when she faced Chloe, that was it, definitely.

Marinette was determined to do those two scenes, she wanted to show both girls that they were hurting Adrien, she wanted to show that to the whole class and to their teacher, and principal Damocles was supposed to be there for the show too.

"Thank you." He whispered. "But we can still change or adapt them if you want?" Because he would never knowingly push someone to do something they did not want. He was pushed to do such things all the time, he did not want to make other people go through that, especially his friends, like Marinette.

"No" she whispered back. There were other students entering the classroom and they continued their conversation but continued to whisper.

"Do you want to add anything of yours here?" He asked quietly. Marinette pondered.

"I might have an idea, but ..." It was Chat Noir's persistent flirting that was sometimes annoying her, _sometimes_ was the key word. "Nah it is too complicated and long we can't do it without giving it the whole context."

"Well we have time, you can explain." Adrien leaned in closer so they could speak quietly.

"Well, you know how there is a time and a place for everything?" Marinette asked quietly.

Adrien raised his eyebrows. "You do not seem that kind of a person that would insist on that." He teased.

"Um yes, well no, I am not, but sometimes something is acceptable but sometimes it is not … " She trailed off. How was she going to explain this without giving away her identity.

"Sometimes?" He repeated her last word.

"Well, what if you would be comfortable with this in the privacy of your own room but not in front of the school?" Marinette asked as she pointed towards the paper. Adrien visibly shuddered.

"I would not." He spoke a bit louder than he wanted as he shuddered at the thought. "Not with the two of them." He added quickly to reassure her. She was already nervous and did not complete the attack yesterday, he did not want to burden her further. Besides, the thought of her doing that, if only for the show, did not feel so repulsive to him.

"Okay." It was Marinette who shuddered now because she understood what he was talking about.

"At this point, I would feel violated if Lila just walked into my room." The boy whispered quietly. Marinette groaned. "And she even did not hurt me the way she hurt you." He added. "How do you even go to the bathroom after that?" He asked quietly once the thought occurred to him.

She blushed, hard. He just asked her about how she went to the bathroom. She was glad she was seated because her feet would have given up. Her feet. That was it.

"On my feet." She shrugged. The tease was lost due to her blushing face and quiet voice. But Adrien got the message and blushed back.

"I am sorry, that was rude of me, it was not my place to ask." The boy apologized swiftly. It was his turn to blush. He just asked the girl about going to the bathroom. What was he thinking?

Marinette did a little thinking of her own. Perhaps her evasive methods could be useful for him too. It was not as if he asked her what she did in the bathroom.

"Actually I sneak away or go when she is already in the classroom or wait to ask during the class." Marinette counted the ways on her fingers.

The fact that their heads were so close together prevented Chloe from her usual morning attack. The fact that they barely perceived anyone else made them miss the moment Ms Buster entered the classroom. The teacher caught their attention after additional effort and Adrien finally turned around, but he noticed the way Lila glared at the two of them. He could see on Ms Bustier's face that she noticed the glare too. The teacher frowned but did not ask a thing. She took attendance.

Adrien did not evade Chloe's attack completely because she threw herself on him in the beginning of the next short break. He had to use all his strength to push her away. That girl was strong.

He did not fail to observe how cautious Marinette was. She approached a bathroom door that was on their way to the science class, but then she noticed Lila's sly grin as the liar saw the opportunity. Marinette quickly turned around and continued to walk. Adrien knew that Mme Mendeleev had strict rules and seldom allowed students to go on toilet breaks. It was mostly because they would either miss part of her explanation and were not able to perform the experiment, or they would need to abandon the experiment itself.

Once they were in the science lab, Adrien took out his worksheets and put them on the desk. Alya was behind in her spot and talked to Nino. Adrien quickly summoned Marinette and pretended he wanted to discuss their assignment. It was good that everyone evaded talking to them as they did not want to be drawn in and get the extra work.

The bell rang and Marinette motioned to move away but Adrien motioned for her to stay and smiled. She melted instantly.

"You can chose your lab partners now." The teacher announced.

Marinette turned around only to see Alya's knowing wink. Nino just shrugged. Adrien mouthed thanks to Nino and turned back to the teacher. He noticed Lila was furious.

In the next five minutes the teacher explained the experiment. Marinette was visibly squirming and bouncing and pressing her knees together. Then there came the time to pour the water into a measuring device and then into a glass container and heat it. Adrien knew.

"You can ask now." He nudged her.

She stared at the boy. 'How did he know?' Passed through her mind quickly, but the need was so intense she ignored everything, her crush, the mortification, the threat that Lila might follow.

"Teacher, could I be excused to go to the bathroom?" She asked as she bounced on her feet.

"I will brief her when she returns." Adrien added quickly and quietly.

Mme Mendeleev looked at both of them sternly and then allowed it. Her look told Adrien that it was his responsibility now.

Marinette bolted out through the door.

Two minutes later she was back.

"What did I miss?" She asked quietly.

"She did not let Lila follow you." Adrien whispered and smiled mischievously. "They just finished arguing."

"What?" She mouthed.

"I have to brief you on this one, but you were here during the explanation, do you understand what we are doing?" He asked quietly.

"Mostly, I think." She sighed.

He explained her briefly and they did the experiment. Mme Mendeleev checked their notes and nodded approvingly. Then she motioned for them to check the rest of their worksheet. There were other experiments they could do.

"Oh, we could make them all." Adrien beamed.

Marinette frowned.

"Come on, it will be fun." He was bouncing on his feet and Marinette could not possibly deny him this, the boy had so much fun, she just wanted him to be happy.

They have completed all twelve experiments and Adrien was doing quick computations for one while Marinette struggled but completed the computation for another, they quickly exchanged the results and proceeded with the next set of experiments. The bell had already rang but the teacher let them use additional two minutes because Marinette was absent for that time. They finally returned their wet and smeared reports, but filled up to the last point.

"What about adding your names to these?" The teacher asked as she waved the two report sheets. They both swiftly turned around and wrote their names. The teacher was smiling at them while they were not looking.

After they left the chemistry class, Adrien was thoughtful.

"Marinette, if I said now that 'the chemistry is good between us', would that make you uncomfortable, I mean would that classify as sexual harassment?" The boy asked what bothered him. Because he would say something like that to Ladybug and she would sometimes roll her eyes sometimes she would retort beck, sometimes she would ask him to stop.

But the girl he asked was pink in her face and just waved her head.

"You are waving your head, but I can see that I made you uncomfortable." Adrien sighed.

"No" She squeaked out. Then she took a deep breath and clenched her fists. "You can talk with me about chemistry all the time." She spoke quickly and then exhaled. And then she resisted the urge to run away.


	5. Chapter 5 - Space

Space

He asked Marinette how would she feel about that flirty sentence. She was obviously nervous about it and yet she told him it was okay. The girls were complicated indeed.

There was a definition of the personal space in the papers they got as initial instructions. Adrien knew he needed his space when Lila was around. The same was valid for Chloe. But he did not need it around Nino, Alya or Marinette. He learned it was only natural to tolerate some people in his personal space and not the other. He was not supposed to act as if everything was perfectly fine when anyone throws themselves on him, or touched him, or … whatever.

Marinette was mostly proud of herself for not squeaking and running away half the time. Adrien was shadowing her during the breaks. And he had a few more questions to ask.

"So we make a good team, don't we?" Adrien nudged her on their way to the next class. Marinette nodded and smiled quickly before she tried to hide her pink face.

Alya was winking and giving suggestive comments when the boy did not look. Alix snickered, Rose cooed, Mylenne smiled encouragingly, Juleka … kept whatever she wanted to express to herself.

Adrien remembered the akuma fight from last night. He schooled himself not to tease Ladybug with a nickname she did not like and he cut down on the flirting as much as he could. Sometimes she flirted back, sometimes she told him to shut up. He could not tell the difference. Perhaps it was about other circumstances, just like Marinette proposed yesterday but he could not tell what was different. He really wanted an advice on that, it was too complicated, because they were supposed to cover the behaviour in school.

It was time for a lunch break. The students dispersed towards the canteen or were going out from school. Marinette opened her bag with lunch. They took the food, walked and ate while they discussed where to sit and eat. Then he noticed her eyes widened and he looked in that direction. He saw just a glimpse, but he was sure it was "Lila?" he asked quietly.

Marinette nodded.

"Let's just go together." He smiled and they continued walking. When they reached the corner, there was nobody there, but this time it was him who noticed how the girl spied on them from where she was hiding below a flight of stairs. They had to pass those stairs on their way to the library.

After he tried with flirting, Adrien wanted to raise the issue of nicknames. He was taking one more piece of pastry when and idea occurred to him.

"About those nicknames. Has anyone ever called you a muffin?" The boy asked as he held one muffin in his hand. The girl looked at him with wide eyes. "Or a cutie pie?" He remembered one more. "Or sweet cake? Macaron?"

The shade of pink just changed into one shade darker with each question.

"Papa" she whispered. "And maman. And grandpa." She admitted quietly.

"And did you like it?" He grinned. "Would you like someone else to call you that?" The boy forgot about his usual behaviour, he was all Chat Noir at that moment.

She was the picture perfect definition of flustered. She might like if he called her that, but not just anyone. And then he would ask why and then she would have to explain why and ….

Then she waved her head. Adrien sank. He would love to invent nicknames for her.

"Can you tell me how you make these?" The boy asked to change the subject.

They talked about pastries on their way because they both knew Lila was listening. Adrien asked questions and Marinette was happy to tell stories from her papa and her grandpa about each of the pastries they ate.

In the library, Marinette realized a flaw in their plan. She explained to the librarian that they were supposed to speak, to act the scenes to prepare for the meeting in the afternoon. Apparently they were not the first who arrived with that problem.

"I have let the three students from the other class in the study room, you two could use my office, I still have the teachers lounge, but they might need it or there could be a bigger group." The librarian swiftly lead them to a small room on the side, it was separated from the library and had a small window.

It was also cramped with books, the desk and both chairs was cluttered with papers. They removed their bags and sat down on the carpet.

"Okay, for today we have to explain why we chose these particular scenes, what is wrong there and then they will tell us how to make them right." Marinette stated simply from her notes.

"I think there is lack of respect for my personal space." Adrien concluded and marked it down. Then he listed other items that he thought were covered with his examples.

Marinette knew exactly which items on the bullying list were covered by her examples.

They scribbled simple explanations and were satisfied with what the other wrote, when suddenly Adrien jumped on his feet.

"That is great, we can practice now." He said and offered his hand to Marinette. The girl stared at his hand as the pink bubbles blurred her vision, but she shook her head and took the hand and stood to her feet.

"Um so." She offered him her notebook.

"No, I think I did my part better than you did your part." Adrien waved his head. "I think you should practice." And he pushed his paper into her hands. He smiled encouragingly (he knew exactly which smile to use from his modelling repertoire).

Adrien did not forget how scared she looked when he threatened her using Lila's words. He did not want to repeat that unless it was necessary. But he did want her to become more comfortable in the role of Chloe and Lila against him. The room was small and cluttered, they were standing close but he leaned in even closer.

"So, are you ready?" The boy smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"Um, we do not get to act today, I think, we do not have to." Marinette stammered out. She was still mortified by the prospect of throwing herself on the boy and being pushed away and hurting him in the process. She did not want to do that to him. Actually she wanted it, she wanted it very very much, she would have jumped to the opportunity. But the boy listed that as an example of sexual harassment he suffered. And there was no way that she wanted to hurt him, like ever. She had to think of some other way to do this without actually doing it.

"Oh, I am sorry, I am making you uncomfortable by suggesting you should behave like this." He motioned towards the paper. Great job he was doing, by making her harass him, he was in fact harassing her. He was not forcing himself upon her, he was forcing her upon him. Did that actually make any sense? In his head it started to make sense. She was uncomfortable with the prospect of acting like Chloe (with him?) just like he was uncomfortable when Chloe did it to him.

"Um I don't like making you uncomfortable. I don't want to push you through this. You don't like that being done to you. It is wrong. That is why we are doing this whole thing." Marinette pushed each sentence out slowly and painfully, but she did it. There, she said it, it was such a relief.

He understood her concern and at the same time he was sorry. Because the thought of her doing that to him was not making him uncomfortable. The sudden realisation made him blush.

"It is okay, I asked you to do it, besides we have to act believable, and you have to show just how pushy they can be." He smiled gently. His mind was playing games with him, for sure, because he was even looking forward to Marinette impersonating Chloe and Lila. It was because he expected that act would set him free from enduring the same procedure in the future. Yes, that was the reason why he wanted Marinette to do it.

At the same time, Marinette collected all the courage she could. She had to do it. For him. He asked her to. Then it was okay. It said so in the instructions. So it was okay to throw herself on him. But, he did not know that she wanted to do it, for real, not just for acting. Was that wrong? There were no instructions for that. Well she could always act that she was just acting, right?

"Okay, there is not much space in here, so." Marinette took half a step back, Adrien too. The girl steeled herself the usual way, deep breaths, clenched fists, close her eyes and dive in.

"Oh, Adriekins." She screeched and threw herself on him. "Why are you ignoring me? Why does your daddy keep you so busy. Oh!" She whined and hanged on him, but she did not attempt to kiss his face. And she beamed at him, there was pure happiness in her eyes and inside her soul. Her face glowed with real joy. So after he ignored her initial screech and the tone of her voice (because that was believable) he beamed back. His hands were on her hips ready to push her away but he wrapped them around her instead.

"This isn't working." He smiled. He was probably stealing a hug right then.

Marinette suddenly jumped away as she became aware of their proximity, but he was still holding her so she did not go too far (nor hit the bookshelf behind her).

"Want to try again?" He asked. He let go of her once she stood steadily on her own feet. The girl was pink in the face and breathed heavily. The boy was certain it was awkward for her, but just like with the chemistry, he was not sure what her reaction meant.

She sighed. She wanted to. She really wanted to. She nodded.

In this attempt he pushed her away instantly and held her away from him, but he held that warm reassuring smile on his face.

"You know it can't work when you look at me like that." She complained and looked away. But there was smile on her lips too. A smile she tried and failed to push away. She was scolding him and smiling.

"Like what?" Adrien teased and leaned into her space. He knew she complained about his facial expression, he did not want her to think she was hurting him so he did not act hurt.

She was breathing heavily. She could not tell him the truth.

"You look … you look … " She stuttered but stopped every attempt. Because to her the boy looked as if he was enjoying this, and that must have been her imagination, and nothing else, because it was impossible that Adrien Agreste looked at her that way and enjoyed what she just did.

"I know how I am supposed to look, but I want you to know that you are not hurting me right now." The boy finally admitted. Well he admitted that. What he did not admit was that somehow what they were doing was not making him uncomfortable. It was him who leaned into her space, willingly and not because some script said he had to.

"Okay." She answered timidly. So it was all an act, everything was okay, he did not like her doing that to him, he just wanted to reassure her, the perfect angel he was. He looked at her with those warm green eyes and genuine smile that she could not imagine that anyone would interpret their act as something he found uncomfortable. But it was just an act to reassure her.

"I think we can go back to the library and type these if we are supposed to give them the scripts to read. These are quite messy." Adrien proposed.

Marinette jumped to the proposal.

They sat at the library and typed the scripts and the explanations. It took them a while. Adrien stared at the words where 'that boy you like' was written and wondered who was that. He assumed it was Luka. And then he did not feel so good about it being Luka.

"The script is not enough, we have to describe how they move, the expressions on their faces, everything." Marinette whispered to her screen.

"Well I did, mine are mostly about the movements anyway." The boy whispered and leaned over to Marinette. The girl was typing 'sly smile', wicked grin, snarl, pushed with her index finger, and so on. Only then Adrien became aware that he did not depict Lila well, she was much worse than he ever saw her. He pointed to a few words and asked questions quietly. Marinette wrote the explanations in the document.


	6. Chapter 6 - The First Meeting

The First Meeting

The meeting was in a random classroom. There were several experts who introduced themselves quickly and they took turns explaining why they were there. It was easy to follow for Marinette who was at the preparation meetings while Adrien was glad he read preparatory documents.

"Teenagers are _sometimes_ ruled by hormones." A young man who asked to be called Jean said, the word sometimes was stressed in a way that meant _sometimes not_.

"Read it as the whole time." Another man, his name was Philippe, added.

Everyone laughed. It was an easy atmosphere for the heavy subjects they were about to cover.

"We are here to teach you how to define which behaviour is appropriate and what should be sanctioned." A woman named Camille spoke.

"We know that sometimes you do not know what is appropriate yourself." Philippe noted.

"You have learned what is right and wrong at home."Jean started. "Unfortunately, that is not always the truth."

"You follow what you saw on TV or on the internet and think that is okay." Camille continued.

"You may have followed the examples of your peers." Philippe followed.

"It might also depend with whom you interact and other circumstances." Camille added.

"It is _complicated_. But we plan to make it easier for you." Philippe stressed the word complicated.

"Basically, everything that makes you uncomfortable _and is not a part of the school curriculum_, is not acceptable." Jean summarized. He made sure to stress the words ' and is not a part of the school curriculum', obviously there were some excuses invented in the past.

"Someone might call you sensitive, but you have the right to be so." Camille added. "You have the right to say no." She stressed the word no and raised her index finger.

"On the other hand, you might be touchy and that is okay only as long as the other person is okay with it." Jean spoke and hugged his two colleagues as an example.

It was an exercised act and it was finished quickly. Then they moved on to read the short explanations and scripts written by the students that they distributed between themselves so that each expert had a few scripts to read.

Principal Damocles gave a short speech, because that was what school principals did on each occasion, and this particular one was no exception, while the experts read the first sets of explanations and the scripts.

Later the experts took turns and explained why some example was good or bad while the others were reading further material supplied by the students. It was obvious that this meeting was rushed and a lot more time would be needed to do this properly, but they did what they could in the short time they had. Then it was the turn for the examples written by Marinette and Adrien. Camille read Adrien's example and raised her eyebrows.

"These both depict a girl going after a boy?" She asked quietly. Adrien and Marinette nodded. "That is definitely a neglected problem. Excellent work. These are quite short, you might want to add another one if you want."

"We had an idea but it is quite long." Marinette replied.

"What is it, briefly" The woman asked.

"Well sometimes you are comfortable with certain behaviour in certain setting, but not in school, or in class." Marinette explained.

"That would be difficult. You can talk about that in the presentation. And you teenagers do not often care where you are." The woman sighed. "We should stick to the examples that are related to school."

Then the woman glanced at the boy, his name on the paper and there was a glint of recognition in her eyes.

"I have a few more questions about this, but you might prefer to do this after the meeting." Camille concluded with a significant note in her tone that suggested to the teens that was exactly what they were expected to do.

Then it was turn for Jean, who read Marinette's script. He was reading and did not notice that it was his turn. Camille nudged him in the elbow and winked to the students.

"I am touching my colleague, see? And that is okay because we agreed to this before. It does not mean that it is okay for anyone else." She spoke as she waited for Jean to finish reading.

"I am sorry, this was written by Marinette." He read from the paper. "I think this is an excellent example and you should go for it but I want to talk to you after the meeting too." Then the man passed the paper to his colleague and pointed for the man to read.

They finished checking the ideas one by one. Some students were rather energetic, others were more shy. More than a few examples were rather out of the subject, totally exaggerated examples that would require serious criminal charges or a copied scene from a film.

For an unknown reason, principal Damocles was satisfied that his students managed to find so many examples of bullying and sexual harassment in their school life. That had earned him a few odd looks.

The students who gave poor examples had to remember appropriate events from their school life right there on the spot and it turned out that one of the students who was chosen to perform was in fact a bully.

That surprised both the student and the school principal. The student was explaining why he thought it was okay, but with each reason he listed, he was met with the same answer 'It is still wrong'.

"We are really glad you proposed to use this new formula, we decided to try it in few other schools." The lady praised the students and principal Damocles and sent the students away as well as the school principal as she promised they would meet principle Damocles in his office.

Adrien chose to stay by Marinette's side for mutual moral support. By the end of the meeting, Marinette's paper had passed the whole group of experts, while the woman kept Adrien's paper in her hands.

"I want to go first." Camille spoke authoritatively. "The events described here happened to you?" She looked at Adrien.

The boy nodded.

"Have you reported any of them?" The woman asked as if she already knew the answer.

Adrien waved his head.

"I can't." He admitted.

The woman stared at him with her eyes wide open.

"Would you elaborate on that?" Camille said gently. "If it is not too awkward for you to say it right now." She added for good measure.

"First of all, I did not know until yesterday that this would qualify as such. But that is not all." Adrien took a deep breath. "If I report I was sexually harassed in school, my father will pull me out of it and I will be homeschooled again." He stated simply.

The present adults stared at the boy.

"So you can't tell your parents nor file a report to school about this?" The woman asked to verify if she understood the situation correctly.

"No and, you see, one of the girls, she is my childhood friend and ..." Adrien frowned, how could he possibly explain Chloe without naming her.

"The fact that she is your friend and keeps doing this although it makes you feel bad is only making it worse." Camille continued.

"Yes, I, um, Marinette and me, we hope that if we show this as an example of bad behaviour in front of the girls who did this, then they would stop doing it." Adrien explained their logic.

"Well, that is an excellent idea. Please let me know if it works. We will have a wrap up meeting some time next week. And you can send me an e-mail." The woman concluded and offered the floor to her colleague.

"I am referring to the act titled 'bathroom incident'. This event actually happened?" The man stated, it did not even sound like a question.

Marinette nodded.

"To you." He stared at the girl.

She nodded again.

"You are scaring her Jean." The woman smiled. "We can tell it was real, there are too many details of the other girl and almost nothing about your reaction."

"Who is acting the bully?" Jean asked.

Adrien raised his hand.

"Are you sure you can go through that again?" The lady asked Marinette gently.

"Yes." Marinette nodded, she was a face of determination, save her eyes who revealed fear.

"We tried yesterday, she can." Adrien confirmed but there was that nagging feeling as he remembered how she retreated before him when he impersonated Lila.

"Have you reported on this girl?" The man looked with his eyes wide open.

Marinette waved her head. "Nobody would believe me, it was my word against hers. And she claims I am the bully." She spoke tall and brave but her voice was shaking.

"The same girl got her expelled, temporarily, about a month ago." Adrien cut in and even leaned forward as if he wanted to protect Marinette.

The move made few of the adults to assume and then quickly hide an amused expression from their faces.

"You were expelled?" Camille asked with a raised eyebrow.

"How did you come back to school?" Philippe crossed his arms.

"Um, it's complicated." Marinette muttered.

"Why don't you tell me all about it?" Jean said and took a seat.

Marinette stared at her hands.

"Tell them, Marinette, you have nothing to be ashamed for." Adrien nudged the girl.

Marinette took a deep breath.

"I can tell you, I was there … most of the time." The boy offered and started to talk quickly in brief notes. When he told it, it did not sound like Marinette did anything wrong.

So Marinette continued. They heard the whole story. About the lies, the exam, the necklace, the fall, She kept herself calm and composed, but her voice was trembling, a tear escaped her eye when Adrien explained what he did and then she finally revealed what lie Lila used to return her to school.

Most of the adults were taking notes. There was a long moment of silence and several significant looks exchanged between different adults in the room. Marinette watched for a violet butterfly.

"That proposal of yours about a place for everything, does that have anything to do with the fact that Adrien is a model?" The lady asked quietly.

"Um, perhaps yes, you see, just because I am a model and have to suffer people touching me for my work it does not mean anyone can touch me as they please." Adrien stated calmly. That was bothering him ever since he read the list of items that could be covered.

Marinette wondered how her idea of 'flirting during an akuma fight is not good, while it is acceptable otherwise' became Adrien's modelling issue. She wanted to help the boy so she decided to play along. Besides, there was no way that Chat would ever get the message just because of their small performance in the classroom. He would probably never know.

"Have you ever been akumatized?" Philippe asked casually.

Both teens waved their heads.

"But your class has … the highest percentage in this school." The man raised his eyebrows.

"I guess we are the last two left." Marinette shrugged.

"But Marinette was almost akumatized, twice." Adrien added. "In both examples of a bully, an akuma butterfly came after the victim. The first one is Evilustrator. The second one went after Marinette but she calmed down."

"This is useful stuff." Camille was making notes on her tablet.

"I think we got ourselves more than we bargained for." Jean said as he got back to his feet.

"I would advise you not to practice the acts too much if it makes you feel bad, we do not want you akumatized." Camille told them with a sad smile.

They left the meeting with mixed feelings. Marinette was obviously not okay after she told the story and Adrien did not want to send her home alone.

"I know they said not to practice, but I have more than one hour free now, so how about writing homework together or playing games." He offered.

"Playing games, my room." She replied quickly. That was exactly what she needed, company and distraction. She forgot to panic and overthink about having the boy she had a crush on in her room.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Mannequin

The Mannequin

They got to Marinette's room with the mandatory box of pastries that Adrien attacked as soon as he was seated on her computer chair. They have not talked much since they left the meeting, both of them were in their own thoughts. The boy contemplated if this was a good moment to try and ask Marinette about his Chat Noir and Ladybug issues. The computer was right there and he could casually open a video on the Ladyblog and ask. But the girl looked nervous, distressed from the talk on the meeting and he really did not want her to be akumatized. She needed to play a game and he was there for her.

She concentrated on her steps first, she put one foot in front of the other. Happy thoughts. Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Maman. Papa. Pastries. Tikki patted her thigh through the purse. Marinette was setting up the game and turned around when an idea struck her.

"Adrien I can practice on this and you can tell me what to do." She motioned for her mannequin that stood in the corner. It was perfect. She could dress it and practice her act on the mannequin. Adrien could easily correct whatever she did wrong or instruct her how to do it. And she did not have to hurt him.

She glowed with pride. She was going to do it. She was going to help him get rid of those two nasty girls that kept attacking him. Yes. She had a plan. And the mannequin was not even red with black spots on it.

Adrien looked at the mannequin and knew it was an excellent idea. But at the same time he had to admit to himself that he was feeling slightly disappointed. Because he was looking forward to that practise? How strange was that. He was probably just overly excited about finally solving the issue. And then he started to feel guilty because he was disappointed. So she was uncomfortable about touching him. He was making her touch him by making her do this act with him and that was hurting her in the process. And now she found a solution in a form of a mannequin. He somehow felt sorry about that, he felt replaced. What kind of a weirdo was he?

He just nodded approvingly and reached for the papers in his school bag.

She was so happy that she found a solution. Somehow, he was not. He wanted her to practice the old fashioned way. But that was wrong if she did not want to do it. It just confirmed his idea that he was hurting her by making her do that act. It was complicated.

She walked over and stood next to the mannequin, she carefully took off her design and put on a t-shirt and an unbuttoned shirt over it.

"Okay so what do I do?" She asked ready to jump.

"Well you should clutch to the arm but there are no arms, just empty sleeves." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. He was not sure if he enjoyed to complain about the mannequin but the fact that he managed to find a flaw so quickly felt satisfying.

Marinette produced long stockings and filled them with some material so that they were almost resembling arms, then she pulled the filled stockings through the sleeves and added gloves in the end. She took a step left and right to observe the mannequin from all sides. There was not much space to do more.

"Here are the hands." She smiled. Then she took one hand and shook it gently. "Pleased to meet you." She greeted the mannequin. Adrien swallowed the strange feeling in his gut and decided to play along. He pretended that he needed to read the instructions to avoid eye contact. How was he going to do this, he remembered how Vincent issued instruction to him during photo shoots.

"Okay, now wrap your arms around his arm." Adrien instructed.

She did it, awkwardly, and she kept her distance to the mannequin, her arms were closed so loosely that the sleeve did not even touch her body. Marinette actually had no idea how to do what was required of her. She did not get herself into the role. That never occurred to her. Because Lila was so repulsive to her, her brain refused to suggest it. She merely followed the instructions mechanically.

"No, lean into him." He instructed. She did make a small move closer to the mannequin, but there was no effect, she was still not touching it. And she stood awkwardly stiff.

"Closer" He added. Her actions started to amuse him, but he knew that was bad. The girl was clearly not comfortable with what she was doing.

Marinette leaned over so she was touching the mannequin lightly. But it was obvious from her posture that she held her body in such a way to minimize the contact.

Adrien waved his head. The girl was awkward and shy with the mannequin too, he was feeling better already. It was not because of him, it was her and the act itself. He had to help her get into the role.

"You should use your whole body and press yourself against him." He encouraged.

"I will tip it over." She protested. She was holding a sleeve filled with a stocking filled with random cloth leftovers and she was swaying back and forth while she tried to avoid more physical contact with the mannequin. It felt awkward to do this to a mannequin in front of Adrien, let alone to do that to him.

"Okay, I will hold the other side." He approached and took a hold onto the mannequin. He held it from the opposite side. "Now lean onto the guy, come on, like you can't stand on your own two feet.

Marinette knew the feeling, her legs did disobey and go on strike when Adrien was near. So sh leaned onto the mannequin, slowly and carefully, and she hugged the sleeve to her chest. Was that the place Adrien's arm should be? She blushed and stared at the sleeve she hugged.

"Now unlatch this hand and touch it over the chest and down." He instructed.

She obeyed, she felt the fabric of the t-shirt. She did not look at the boy, not once. Her hand trembled and she barely touched the fabric, but she did the move.

"Now sneak it underneath the shirt." Adrien sighed. Cold shivers passed down his spine as he remembered the feeling. He modelled with other models before. It was not always pleasant, but with Lila he felt disgusted. Ever professional, he kept his model smile, but inside he felt sick.

"Okay, I think that is enough." He sighed. "Now try it again." He repeated the instructions and suggested where to look and which expression to make on her face.

So Marinette did the whole act. It lasted about a minute once she got practised. She started feeling more comfortable with the mannequin.

"Do you think you could try to be Chloe now?" He asked timidly. Because he wanted her to stop that. He was reminded of Lila and jealous of a darn mannequin at the same time. It felt odd, really odd.

"I need a head." Marinette muttered quickly to herself. The sentence might have had a double meaning considering who was in the room with her. It took her only a moment, she was already digging through her boxes and produced something small and yellow. She inflated the yellow balloon and tied it up and fastened it to the neck with a piece of scotch tape.

"You are amazing Marinette." Adrien admired her work.

She grinned back.

"Okay, now you have to hold it." She told him as she took a step back.

Then she did the whole act and kissed the balloon.

Adrien laughed.

He looked around her room.

"Hey, do you think we could use one of those posters of me to glue my face on it?" The boy proposed as he motioned around.

She quickly produced another picture of him from somewhere. There was a reason sh was quick and why she did that while he was not looking in that direction. Because she had a lot of his photos stored in the same place.

"Here, I have it from some fashion magazine." She showed him the picture. He grinned approvingly. She fastened it to the balloon with the scotch tape.

"Wow." He laughed. He remembered Wayhem when he was running around with that cardboard cut out of Adrien. Well, if he had something like that, perhaps he could pretend to be present near Chat Noir? He decided to store that idea for later.

"Ta-dah. There he is, our resident supermodel." Marinette announced.

"He can go to photo shoots instead of me." Adrien grinned. They both laughed. He vaguely remembered the incident in the wax museum and the awkward conversation but shook his head. He did not want remind either of them about what happened there. He was not sure what happened there at all. And even later in the car, she was okay and he reassured her and then she was not okay any more.

The mannequin and what she was supposed to do with it reminded her about the incident in the wax museum too. Marinette remembered how she almost kissed him then. Now she had to act and try to do exactly the same thing while she had to pretend to be like Chloe, of all people, and she knew that she was actually hurting him by acting like that. So she knew she also hurt him in the wax museum too. None of them said a word for a minute.

"I think I had enough of this practice, how about that game?" Marinette asked and the two of them took the controls.

Later that evening Marinette practised all the different kinds of speeches with the mannequin. Tikki had fun as she munched on the cookie and watched her chosen dance around, make promises and sing praises. Then she repeated the two exercises while Tikki was reading the description. In the end Marinette wrapped her arms around the mannequin and closed her eyes. She wanted to hold the boy just like she did the day before, she wanted to tell him everything was going to be all right, she wanted him to get rid off the way he was treated, she wanted him to feel better, she did not have to have him herself, as long as she knew that he was happy.

Adrien stared at the script in his hand before a mirror in his bathroom. He practised Lila's expression. He already did Chloe plenty of times and Plagg confirmed he did it well, but he could not imagine how Lila looked while she was threatening Marinette.

"I am supposed to have feral look. How do I do that?" Adrien looked at the mirror.

"I would say that is exactly the look I have on my face when I see a juicy piece of Camembert." Plagg teased.

Adrien produced a piece of cheese and held it in the air but did not let it go and even moved it away when Plagg went after it.

Plagg made a feral face indeed. If the boy was not used to the tiny cat like god of destruction in all states of his cheese cravings, he might have felt cold shivers down his spine.

"Oh, that is the look I need?" Adrien said cheerfully and threw the cheese in the air. Plagg swallowed the piece in one bite.

"Thank you for your help Plagg." The boy smiled and continued to practice.


	8. Chapter 8 - Homework

Homework

The next day they were both late for class (only about five minutes) and they met at the entrance to the classroom. Each of them knew for themselves that the reason was an early morning akuma attack, but wondered why the other one was late.

"I overslept" They both said as they entered the classroom.

Ms Bustier let them slide. They were longer in school the day before for that meeting so she decided to let them be slightly late in the morning, but she made sure that it was understood by the rest of the class that this was an exception and why she made it.

Adrien was worried. He wanted to talk to his lady, well Chat Noir should talk to Ladybug about what he should or should not do. The first evening was too early and they were on timers, he thought he could resolve it by himself. This morning he would be late for school, she too. He tried to make a list from his memory and a few videos he watched last night, but it was inconclusive. The same line would receive reprimand or she flirted back and he had no clue why. He fidgeted in his seat and wondered if he could somehow persuade Max to use Markov for that without revealing his identity.

The day had its ups and downs.

Chloe latched onto Adrien for each break. It was hard for Marinette to see that. She just glared. Chloe returned her air of superiority. Adrien was tired of it. Just a few days. Just a few more days.

Marinette decided to go to a crowded bathroom as an alternative of being alone with Lila in another. Let's just say she was slightly late for the next class.

Alya was hovering over Marinette with 'spill the news girl' kind of demands. Marinette wanted to tell her. She wanted to tell her everything. She always told her everything about her and Adrien. But then she would have to tell about Lila, and Alya would not believe her.

"We did some scripts, we got some instructions yesterday and … it is just a lot of work to do." Marinette sighed. Her homework was piling up.

"Lucky me, Chloe never stays for lunch!" Adrien was by her side for the lunch break.

"Makes me wonder where had my nemesis gone." Marinette smirked.

"She is not only yours, you know." He pretended to pout. It did not work well with chewing a croissant.

"Then Chloe is everyone's." She teased back. But there was truth in her words that made both of them frown. "I know she is your friend, but she always did the best she could to make my life miserable, and not just mine, Nino's too, Kim, Nathaniel, Rose, Juleka ..."

"She is not a monster." Adrien sighed heavily. "She was my first friend, when I had nobody else." The boy spoke quietly as if he was out of breath. Marinette was lost in thought, she knew how Chloe treated her best friend Sabrina, she wondered what kind of friendship Adrien had with her.

"No, she is not, but she is trying hard to be one. I am not surprised after I met her mother. Audrey really loves to make her miserable so that is the only way she knows how to treat people, well that or to treat them like a piece of property." She rambled lost in her thoughts. Then she stopped, she did not intend to say all that out loud.

"That means you got it better, at least she treats you like a person, I am just her property." The boy snickered and waved his head.

"So we are doing it?" She asked.

"We are doing this." The boy smiled back but there was sadness in his eyes.

They ate the pastries and shared his salad on a bench in the courtyard before they went to the library. But that day they settled to catch up on schoolwork, and homework, and literature and then the bell rang for the afternoon classes. At one moment in all that they switched literature notebooks.

Their afternoon classes were busy and they had no time to make any arrangements for the writing up of the presentation or more practice.

"We should probably practice the presentation today." Marinette whispered.

"I'll send you a message after fencing." Adrien replied before they split.

Lila was sitting at her usual bench in the park where she waited for the already usual conversation.

"What do you have that is so important that I had to be here?" Gabriel demanded.

"I have some important news for you. Adrien got involved with that girl from our class, Marinette Dupain Cheng. They are pretending to work on a project, but they are sneaking around, in fact he spends at least an hour in her room each day after school. The two of them are alone and unsupervised." Lila recited her case.

Nathalie was in the car and typed something on the tablet before she showed him the message.

"All right, anything else?" Gabriel replied coldly.

"I want you to stop that project." She demanded.

"I thought you said there was no project." The designer teased coldly from his car.

"I want you to destroy that girl, I want you to remove her from my class, from my school." Lila screamed.

"From what I remember you tried all that and failed." Gabriel reported coldly.

"I want to do that again." Lila screamed.

"I will not prevent you." Gabriel replied with a cold smile on his face. After that he closed the window and the car drove away.

That afternoon Adrien had fencing again.

"Hi Kagami." He greeted the girl.

"Hi Adrien." She replied quietly. "How is your project going?"

"Well, we have chosen the examples of bad behaviour to show." The boy shrugged.

"Which examples have you chosen?" She asked casually as she adjusted her gear.

So he told her.

She said nothing before it was time to step into the gym.

She kept her headgear on the whole time. And she kept silent, save a few necessary words. This time he was better opponent. He lost anyway. But this time, it seemed that he did not loose because he was worse than usual, no, in fact he thought he put up one of his best fights. It was as if she was trying even harder to beat him. It was like that first duel they had, she was fierce as if it was a battle her life depended on and not a mere fencing practice they had twice per week.

"You are really good today." He praised her.

Kagami was silent and acknowledged the praise by a simple nod.

"That was an excellent move." He complimented her

The girl remained silent and Adrien imagined she did one small nod towards him again.

"You have a new strategy?" He asked surprised by her last combination.

This time she made sure to produce absolutely no reaction.

He could not see her face.

Her next attack was pure brutal. Mr D'Argencourt actually shouted for her to stop because Adrien was defeated. And then he sent her to the locker room.

Adrien ran after her because he was concerned that she might become an akuma again.

"Kagami." He called after her.

She took off the protective mask and turned around to face him. She might have put her foil away, but her eyes were shooting daggers at him that he could only try to evade in vain. There were no pink bubbles that blurred his vision like the first time he saw her without the protective mask.

"What is wrong?" The boy asked timidly.

"What is wrong with you?" Kagami replied calmly. It was the same calm way she admitted her defeat the first time they fought, but that time she was disappointed in herself, this time she was obviously disappointed in him.

"Me?" Adrien screamed. Then he schooled down. "I was good back there. I was really good today."

"You are a really good fencer, Adrien. You are a good person too." Her words were quiet but intimidating. The boy almost shivered as he anticipated this was heading to something that was not good. "But in a battle you do not hesitate, you evade blow and attack, you do not let them hit you until they grow tired of it, you do not offer yourself as a bribe." With those words, Kagami turned away and stored her equipment in her duffel bag. "I just need more time to accept what you told me." Kagami added with her back turned to the baffled boy before she left.

Adrien went to his locker and found a message from Nathalie on his phone. He was expected to go straight home. He called Marinette on the way.

"Hi Marinette, father wants me home instantly, I was thinking, we could finish the presentation as we agreed and then we can practice over the phone?" The boy explained his idea. Marinette agreed. She was sorry he could not come, but at least she would practice her speech with the mannequin.

Gabriel Agreste stood tall in his usual outfit with his hands behind his back as he waited for Adrien to enter his office.

"It was brought to my attention that you are with a girl from your class and spend an hour per day with her in her room without proper supervision." Gabriel told him sternly the moment the boy entered his office.

"We got paired up for a school assignment." Adrien replied timidly. "You got the paperwork on Monday, you signed approval for that. I thought you knew." Yeah, they spent an hour each day but not on an assignment, sometimes they play video games, and sometimes they went there even for lunch.

"The school form did not state the particularities of this arrangement that I have just mentioned." His father retorted.

"We are preparing the presentation and we have to play roles in four sketches, it is a lot of work, and we can't do it all in school. Her parents work in the bakery in the same house, they can come in and check up on us at any time." Adrien started to explain. He cringed inside as he remembered when Lila was in his room without any supervision.

"You have asked Nathalie to free you from most of your activities to be able to do a _school_ _project_." The designer used a particular tone for the words a school project to stress how unimportant he thought it was.

"Actually, I just got from fencing, and I practice Chinese and piano after dinner." Those last two statements were only conditionally true, he played the recordings of his piano practice and he practised Chinese for about fifteen minutes.

"And I heard you volunteered for that." Gabriel snarled.

"I had to father, they wanted someone with good acting skills and I am the only one with the experience, I am good at it and they all know it, everyone called for me, besides, I never volunteer for anything in school, it started to look bad, I have to do something for the class and I am good at this so it is less work for me." The boy was speaking and was slightly surprised he was allowed to talk for so long.

"And the girl you are working with?" Gabriel demanded.

"She is … she needs my help with acting but she is getting better, she is good at making presentations." The boy was trying to explain as he was not sure what his father wanted to hear.

"Her name?" Gabriel demanded although he knew it well. Adrien was surprised with the question because he expected his father knew, he thought that Nathalie told him.

"Marinette Dupain Cheng. I explained everything to Nathalie when I sent her the parental agreement for you to sign and you signed it." Adrien was slightly exasperated. He thought everything was resolved on Monday.

"Did she volunteer?" Gabriel snarled.

"No, she did not, it was Lila Rossi who proposed Marinette for this assignment." The boy answered timidly. It sounded odd, but it was the truth. It was good he had training as a model and his face was schooled in that version of the smile that his father preferred in their conversations.

"Oh." Gabriel was visibly surprised by the answer. "Thank you Adrien. You are dismissed."

Adrien hated how he felt, but at least he was allowed to continue, or he was not forbidden, yet. He quietly left his father's office and quickly strolled through the corridors to his room. He needed to finish the presentation, he knew Marinette probably finished her part already.


	9. Chapter 9 - The Call

Call

"Spill it girl." Alya shouted as she entered Marinette's room followed by Alix, Rose, Juleka and Mylenne. Marinette sighed, it was good they did not try to bring Lila along. Marinette explained to the girls she did not want the girl who got her expelled anywhere near her room, her house nor her free time. The girls were actually sympathetic as they could understand the reasons behind. It was a rough conversation with Alya, but the rest of the girls were fine with it. Alix was particularly understanding and even praised Marinette for being able to go back to the same class.

Marinette sat on her computer chair in front of her computer as she worked on the presentation. Alya hovered above her determined to have her questions answered. She wanted to know. She needed to know. Because Marinette always told her everything. And this time, Marinette told her little more than nothing.

Mylenne, Rose and Juleka sat on the chaise beside them and observed them with undivided attention, slightly concerned, mostly entertained and excited about the piece of news they expected to hear. The only thing that was missing was an oversize cup with popcorn and one would think they were watching a film in a cinema.

Alix whirled around like a restless energetic girl she was. Within the few silent moments when the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife she already registered all moved and missing pictures of Adrien, noticed the new screen background, eyed the photos above her bed and smirked, then she turned around and saw it.

"What is this?" Alix stared at the mannequin dressed in dark t-shirt (it was not as if Marinette had a copy of a black t-shirt with green lines that she might have made herself one day) and a bright unbuttoned shirt over it (she indeed did not have the Gabriel Agreste original white shirt nor anything resembling one) with sleeves filled with stockings and gloves stuck over them. And on top of that there was a photo of Adrien taped to a balloon the same colour as the boy's hair. The pink haired girl knew she was going to hear or see something new today.

"Um, I am supposed to act with Adrien." Marinette spoke while she flailed her hands animatedly. "And you know how I get … around him. So now I can practice on the mannequin." She motioned both her hands towards the mannequin to stress her words.

"Does it work?" Alix asked with a raised eyebrow. The pink haired girl would not have been surprised if Marinette stammered even when she talked to a mannequin that had a photo of Adrien's face taped on in the place of the head.

"Well it does in a way." Marinette shrugged, she had no clue if she would be able to repeat that with a real boy. "With a lot of practice I will be able to repeat everything mechanically." She made her plan, she would simply close her eyes or look at some random spot on the side and do it through the muscle memory.

"Good for you." Mylenne smiled.

"This is so romantic." Rose cooed.

"That is great." Was something that Juleka muttered but it was not as if anyone heard over all of the excitement.

"Can you also punch him?" Alix grinned at the mannequin.

"No, no punching, we are not doing that kind of story." Marinette waved her head.

"So what are you doing?" Alya took a piece of paper from Marinette's desk, but she was disappointed because it was homework.

Marinette fidgeted. She was definitely not going to tell them, she did not want to ruin the plan. But which excuse could he use? 'We don't know yet' would not work because she already admitted that she practised it. 'I can't tell you' would not work for long because they could easily find out it is not actually forbidden, and if she used 'I can't tell you because I promised Adrien not to ruin a surprise' Alya would never let her see the light of the day.

"Uh, you have not done this already?" Alya scolded as she noticed the empty worksheet for the Ms Bustier's class they got on Monday but it was not due until Friday. Marinette hoped doing her assignment might prolong her deadline for those.

"Nope. Doing this assignment is a lot of work. I have to finish writing the presentation and we will have to go through the presentation together." Marinette continued.

"Oh, you will train for the presentation together?" Rose cooed.

Juleka also said something.

"You plan to stand in front of the class and present something together with Adrien?" Alix snorted. "Good luck!"

Marinette glared at the girl, but she was smiling too. She knew she earned it after all the stupid things she did in his presence.

The truth was that they both typed in the presentation and she was waiting for him to make a video call during which they would go through and practice. Her phone rang. She did not expect the call to be placed so soon. And it was an audio call.

"Hi Adrien." She greeted and all the chatter stopped instantly. All the girls listened intently.

Nathalie lingered in Gabriel's office for a brief instruction before she went after Adrien into his room. He was unpacking the things from his school bag while she was assembling a schedule for the next day on her tablet. He peeked onto the screen and noticed she kept the assignment meeting in the schedule. It was very nice of her that she negotiated with his father on Monday. The only thing that was removed from the schedule completely were the photo shoots.

He was in sour mood after fencing, well after the talk with Kagami, but he felt like he won a small battle against Hawk Moth after the conversation with his father, and the boy was greedy for more, he just had to test his luck.

"Nathalie, I am supposed to practice the presentation with Marinette, would it be possible to go there tomorrow after school? Or even today?" He pleaded as he took out a pink notebook from his school bag.

"What is that?" Nathalie motioned towards the notebook.

Adrien stared at it.

"It is Marinette's literature notebook." He pointed towards the name and the subject on the front cover. Then he dug into his bag. There was no Camembert nor his literature notebook.

"My literature notebook is missing. We must have switched in the library." He concluded and took out his phone. "I will call her to check if I did not leave it in school."

Nathalie remained calm as a statue and produced no reaction at all. Adrien was relieved, if she did not stop him yet, then he was allowed to continue.

"Hi Marinette." He greeted with a gentle smile, but he turned his face away from Nathalie.

"Hi Adrien." Marinette greeted while all the girls in her room fell absolutely silent.

"I have your literature notebook. Do you have mine?" He asked calmly very well aware that Nathalie was behind him.

"Okay." Marinette dug into her backpack.

"Um, I have a black notebook with the Gabriel logo on it." She said as she located the unfamiliar object in her backpack. She was facing her desk so all the girls were behind her back.

Juleka sat in her place and smiled, because this brave girl had a conversation with Adrien.

Mylenne was biting her fingers, she stood up in her excitement as she witnessed history being made.

Rose grabbed the nearest soft toy, or perhaps it was just a pillow, you never know with Marinette, it was something she had made, and hugged it to her chest while she cooed silently.

Alya was standing closest to Marinette, she just about remembered to breathe and the next thing anyone could expect from her was an excited scream, but Alix was so fast that she somehow climbed up on the loft, grabbed a pillow from Marinette's bed, jumped down and pushed the pillow into Alya's face so that the taller girl produced no audible sound.

"Excellent. Could you please go to the page where I wrote about the book we did today. Yes." Adrien spoke and flipped the pages in her notebook.

"Okay, could you do the same with mine please?" Marinette replied and flipped through the pages.

"You did not finish compare and contrast, you barely started." Adrien said.

"You have three items compared." She replied.

"Well then I have one line more than you." The boy concluded.

Alya tried to remove the pillow and peek over Marinette's shoulder to see what were those two love birds talking about, but Alix was stronger and pulled her away. Both of them stumbled together on the chaise.

"I could finish it for you, I have what you need in my notes. I can take a picture of them and you could write it in my notebook." Marinette explained her plan while four girls waved their heads and mouthed 'no'.

"I think Ms Bustier would notice a different handwriting if you finished mine and I finished yours." Adrien continued.

"I am more worried about others." She remained vague as she did not want to finish that sentence in front of the audience in the room.

Alya calmed down. Alix removed the pillow to let her breathe but kept it in her hands.

"You are right about that." He replied as vaguely as he could because he was observed too.

"It is due tomorrow morning. How much time do you need if we do it tomorrow before class?" She asked next.

Four girls facepalmed. 'Girl you are always late' Alya mouthed. But Marinette could not see her with her back turned.

"Marinette, you are not known as a morning person. And that could easily take an hour." The boy countered.

Sabine was entering the room through the hatch door and carried a tray with treats but four girls silenced her.

"She is on the phone with Adrien." Rose squeaked while the other three tried to keep her quiet.

Marinette waved her hand in their direction but did not bother to turn around.

Sabine stared at the mannequin.

"She practices her acting with the mannequin." Mylenne whispered.

"So that she does not stutter and stammer when they perform." Alix added quietly.

Alya was released from Alix's hold because the latter girl was busy talking with Sabine, so she grabbed Marinettes shirt and was shaking the girl while she was on the phone. Marinette slapped her hand gently and Alix pulled her away again.

"Just a moment, please." On the other side of the phone call, Adrien turned to Nathalie.

Marinette used the moment to turn around and glare at Alya. She did not need her best friend to pounce on her while she was talking to her crush, thank you very much.

"Nathalie, can I go to Marinette's so that we can finish this?" He showed her the notebook opened on the page. "We were working on this during lunch break after a part of our project was finished and ..."

"You can go." Nathalie replied with an amused smile. Gabriel just confirmed his approval for the project (not that he had much choice once he signed the parental agreement) and his assistant took the liberty to approve this herself without additional consultations and clarifications.

"Marinette, can I come over?" Adrien asked quietly, he restrained any victory from the tone of his voice.

"Sure" Marinette replied. She stared at a blank spot on her wall, because if she looked at a poster of him, she would not be able to speak, if she looked at the girls, she would have to laugh.

Girls had to share pillows to scream into. Sabine just watched with an amused smile.

"That is amazing. See you soon Marinette." Adrien replied and cut the call.

"See you, bye Adrien." She barely whispered back.

Marinette turned around and looked straight into her mother.

"Maman, Adrien and me switched these notebooks, he is coming over." She said quietly and calmly as if it was a weather forecast.

The girls cheered and screamed.

"Girls, this is nothing much, he was here yesterday, we arranged this mannequin together." She motioned towards the item in the corner of her room.

"Nothing much?" Alya screamed as she bounced on her feet.

"Nothing happened. Nothing is going to happen." Marinette never finished her thoughts out loud. 'Because I can't mess this up for him by my stupid confession.'

"I think we should all go." Alix stated as she jumped to her feet. "It was nice being here. Thank you for the pastry maman Sabine." The pink haired girl grabbed a few pieces from the tray, the other girls followed her example.

The three girls followed Alix down the stairs. Sabine tailed after them and then returned to the bakery to help Tom before they closed for the day.


	10. Chapter 10 - Literature

Literature

"You did great Marinette, you haven't even called him hot stuff." Tikki chirped. The tiny goddess of creation could not help herself but tease her chosen for the event when the girl went so far as to steal Adrien's phone and delete the recorded voice mail.

Marinette burst into laughter but wanted to stare at her kwami. She was proud of herself too. It was a huge leap forward for her. But she kept reminding herself it was just for the project, the assignment she got with Adrien and she had to do it right, because of him, because he needed it, because it was important for him, because he was suffering from harassment too. And then there was the fact that she called him hot stuff. Technically, she did not even need to look at the definitions, that could be considered sexual harassment too.

That made her stop and think. Adrien Agreste was harassed. He suffered. He did not find the photo shoots pleasant, at least sometimes he suffered there, yet he still did them, because his father wanted him to. He had no clue he did not have to suffer from Chloe and Lila and what they did had a really identifiable name, that used one of the words she could hardly pronounce in front of him. And she was supposed to talk with him about it during the presentation, and then she was about to repeat that with him. She was beyond mortified, this was not about her crush, this was serious, this was like an akuma she had to fight and win. She had to win, she had no choice.

"I still have to make myself do that to him." She sighed and looked at the mannequin.

"You can do it to a doll." The tiny red goddess of creation pointed. "You can always bring the mannequin to the class."

"I could say that what I am about to do is so wrong that I do not want to demonstrate it on a living person." Marinette's eyes were shining.

"Aren't you exaggerating a little?" The tiny red goddess half teased.

"But it is so wrong." Marinette groaned into her hands. She would have enjoyed doing that if only she was not hurting him. But she (believed that she) was hurting him, and that was just tragic.

"I can't bring a mannequin to the class. Besides, it has to be him." She sighed. "The effect would not be the same."

"You can do it Marinette. I believe in you." Tikki was a true cheerleader.

"The only thing left to do is to practise and practise until I can do it without thinking." Marinette sighed.

"You are not hurting him. He asked you to do it. You are doing it for him." Tikki reminded her chosen.

"I still know that it hurts him." She whined.

"What you are supposed to do is only wrong if he doesn't want it." Tikki muttered and escaped to her hiding place.

Adrien climbed all the way up to her room as was instructed by Sabine, pink notebook and another box of pastry in hand.

"Hi Marinette. Your father is testing another recipe." Adrien greeted cheerfully.

"Hi Adrien." She greeted and offered him a seat at her desk. "Muffins, again?"

"Yes, he said these were your idea." The boy said as he opened the box.

"Black chocolate with green pieces of mint? Yeah, those are Chat Noir muffins." She smiled and took one to try.

Adrien ate his first muffin so quickly that Plagg would envy him on the speed. The boy instantly reached for the next one.

"Too much mint." Marinette complained after her first bite.

"I like it." The boy was in the middle of his second muffin.

"Why don't you eat, I will fetch us something to drink and then we should begin with the literature. Or should we just exchange the notebooks?" Marinette asked quietly. She could not believe that her biggest crush, the love of her life, supermodel Adrien Agreste was stuffing himself with her father's experimental muffins (which were originally her idea) on the chaise in her bedroom. She waited for him to swallow.

"I persuaded Nathalie that I should stay here for a while." The boy smiled. He did not mention the deal to do a piano practice twice more over the weekend for that. Adrien thought how he could get used to this, muffins, homework, games and company, he liked this project a lot.

Marinette brought juice and unfolded the paper with her notes.

"I have my notes here." She pointed to rather random smudges of text all around the paper with some attempt of a design that she scratched off. She was probably reading and designing and making notes all at the same time.

"Mine should be on several post it notes stuck inside the notebook." Adrien opened his notebook again and there a few pages before the end there were about twenty post it notes of various colours.

They were finished with writing up their literature report quickly from their own and combined notes.

"It took us less than a quarter of an hour." Marinette smiled when she put down her pencil. She knew she could do it in the morning, it would not have been the first time for her that she scrambled up her homework in the minutes that Ms Bustier took attendance.

"Yes, now we could go through that presentation or play games?" Adrien grinned. There was hope in his green eyes that he could stay longer. He was probably hoping to play a game.

"Um, perhaps presentation first?" She proposed. She had to practice speaking about that in front of him, if it did not work, she can speak to the mannequin and the posters the whole night.

The presentation was going through the different kinds of bullying and harassment and they first read the slides to proofread and verify they had everything listed, then they took the cheat sheets with lines that they were supposed to say.

"These materials we got are good, I think we should just read the underlined parts." Adrien proposed.

"It might sound boring if we just read a document." Marinette was tugging on one of her pigtails.

"We can make it sound more interesting and switch between us for each sentence, just like they did yesterday." The boy smiled.

They simply alternated who was talking between the sentences and it sounded like a conversation instantly. It was just like the presentation from the experts from the day before. Both of them were rather proud.

The part about the bullying went without a hitch. Adrien spoke with confidence and perfect intonation, his experience in speaking for the public and the media was really showing. Marinette tried to impersonate Nadia in her eloquence and it was working as long as she was on the subject she was comfortable with. She had that fire in her eyes like she had when she countered Chloe about her latest deed. She was all confidence and determination as if she was facing Chloe already.

But then they switched the subject.

"And now we are changing the subject. We will be talking about hmph harassment." The girl spoke quickly and with confidence.

Adrien laughed.

"You might want to repeat that line." He smiled. It was her first mistake and he appreciated how much she was trying, and it showed, she aired confidence, what was one garbled word?

She garbled the same word again. Completely red in the face, she hid behind her sheet with text.

"Hm, Why don't I take the second sentence? There are two sentences in that line anyway?" He smiled and took his neon green marker to mark his piece of text and read it.

Marinette concluded that the fact that he actually pronounced the word right in front of her, while they were alone, in her pink room, did not actually help much to reduce the blush on her face.

She stuttered out her next line. Adrien raised an eyebrow. She repeated the line while she was hiding behind her sheet of paper. Then it was his turn. And then it was her again and it was becoming easier. Marinette stared at the paper and read the words without thinking about them. Suddenly the words meant nothing, she just had to say them, pronounce them with the right pace and accent and that was it. She did not have to think about the meaning at all. They were taking turns and marking their lines until they reached the end.

Marinette's face might have been pinker than the walls in her room, but she did it.

Adrien offered her a fist and she bumped it.

"Good, we can practice that later over the phone if you want." Adrien grinned.

"Okay." Marinette replied meekly. They were sitting in front of her computer, the presentation opened. Those words stared at her. She was blushing.

"I wanted to talk." The boy was quiet and serious. Marinette nodded as she did not trust her words at that moment. Her insides sunk down.

"It is nothing you did, it is what I want you to do." He motioned towards the mannequin. "If you do that against your will, if I am forcing you, that is also harassment."

Marinette shook her head.

"It is." The boy nodded.

"I want to do it." She screamed. "I mean I don't want to." She flailed her hands and smacked them over her mouth. Adrien was certain that hurt her. "I mean I do not want to do it because it hurts you. But I do want to do it only because it hurts you so you do not have to keep hurting. But I do not want to hurt you. I want to help you." She gesticulated with her hands and arms so quickly that Adrien grabbed her hands.

"You will not hurt me. I do not know if that act will help me, but you will not hurt me." The boy looked at her gently.

"Good." Marinette shook her head up and down.

"About my act, you know I will be acting, right, that I do not mean any of this." Adrien asked quietly.

Marinette nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. Adrien was confused.

"I know." She finally spoke.

"Good." He said in the same tone Marinette did just moments ago. "Games?" He grinned.

"That new game from Max?" Marinette asked timidly.

"Yes." Adrien raised his fist in the air.

She swiftly closed the presentation with those words that made her blush (at least in front of Adrien) and opened the game. Adrien was finishing another piece of pastry while she was setting it up.

Marinette won the first round and danced, but Adrien won the second one and jumped in the air to celebrate. They played the game again until Tom climbed upstairs. The large man poked his head inside the room just to see them and ask Adrien to come downstairs. But then he saw the game. He waited for them to finish the round they were playing. The two kids were so consumed in having fun.

"Hey, can I try?" The large man pleaded with kitten eyes.

"Get ready to be smashed." Marinette teased.

"Actually, I wanted to play with Adrien." Tom grinned.

"Of course." Adrien was almost pouncing in his seat.

Tom was climbing up through the hatch.

Marinette handed over her controller reluctantly.

They chose their characters and played. Adrien won easily. He celebrated but then looked at Tom. The man had rather intimidating proportions. Add to that Adrien's memories of Weredad. The boy gulped. Tom insisted to play one more round with Adrien, he put up a good fight and lost again.

Then Sabine arrived back into the room.

"Tom, I sent you upstairs to tell Adrien his driver is waiting for him not to play games with him." Sabine scolded but everyone could hear the laughter in her tone.

That evening a girl was standing in front of a mannequin in her room and read the lines from a sheet of paper until her kwami told her it was time for bed, several times.

That evening a boy was sitting in his room and was trying to make a list:

"She told me to stop calling her Bugaboo." The boy sighed.

"She likes it, she smiled back." A tiny black cat teased.

"I tried to kiss her, she pushed me away." He made a sad face.

"Did she ask you when she kissed your cheek, kid?" Plagg retorted.

Adrien made a dreamy face at the memory.

"She refuses when I give her flowers." Adrien sighed. "Except that one time."

"I told you, you should give her Camembert." The tiny god of destruction floated away.


	11. Chapter 11 - We Need To Talk

Chat Noir and Ladybug were used to the akuma in the middle of the night. It was rather regular event, once to twice per week. Sometimes they were still awake, sometimes they were just before dawn, but this one really became active in the middle of the night.

The akuma floated in the middle of the street, few metres above the road, they had two heads, one male, another female, one body with four arms and two legs. Their clothes were assembled from what both persons were wearing before they got akumatized, a pyjama, a nightgown and a bathrobe. And they wore many accessories, from both origins.

"You said you wanted to talk, now talk!" The woman head shouted.

"No, you said we need to talk." The man head retorted.

They had difficulties to look at each other at the small distance, as both their heads were attached to the same body, but they did, nevertheless.

"What are their powers?" Chat asked quietly as he landed beside Ladybug who was hiding behind a wall that supported a few chimneys on a random rooftop nearby the floating akuma.

"Except loud argument? I do not have a clue." She shook her head. "I have been here for a while and they have not used their powers since."

"Perhaps I should … " Chat Noir wanted to step out from his hiding and taunt the akuma.

"Chat, don't, we do not know what they do." Ladybug warned as she grabbed him by his tail and pulled back. He landed on top of her and they rolled away to a stop.

"They will hurt civilians." Chat complained quietly.

"Right now I need you more than that, sorry Kitty." She sighed while she was raising to her feet from her position on top of him and offered him her hand. They sneaked back to the same hiding space. Few civilians have passed but the akuma was too busy with arguing with themselves to notice.

"Huh, maybe we could use the time to talk too?" Chat grinned.

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "What is it this time, Chat?"

Chat pondered where to start. Should he mention the project or should he be more straightforward. Of course he came unprepared for the talk. It did not matter how much he wanted to talk to her.

"I noticed you minded when I called you Bugaboo, so I stopped." Chat stated simply.

"Oh, yes." Ladybug replied in a quiet voice. She was tempted to tease him with finally. She wanted to tell him that she noticed and thank him. She wanted to tell him ...

"And I am sorry for causing you pain." He continued.

She swiftly raised her eyes. "What pain?"

"When I … well I said a few things that made you angry with me and I am sorry." Chat did not know how much time he had for this conversation and he wanted to start with an apology.

"Chat it is hardly the time … " She peeked between two chimneys. " … to have this conversation ..." The akuma still argued with itself. " … while we are in the middle of a battle."

"I seldom see you otherwise. I know I will not have another chance for a while." Chat shrugged.

Ladybug sighed, she was watching the akuma. Chat Noir joined her. She knew it was the truth. She could not arrange for a meeting any time soon. It was not as if she had time to spare.

The akuma was arguing with themselves.

"Can I ask you something?" Chat asked after a few moments of silence.

"Okay" Ladybug side eyes him.

"Was I hurting you when I flirted with you?" He was sure he knew the answer and he was ready to beg her forgiveness.

"Annoyed me, when you did it in the middle of a battle, yes. Hurt me? Not really." She replied flatly. "Perhaps I got distracted by it and got hurt." She added in barely audible tone and then went quiet. She knew better, she knew that she should not have been distracted if she felt nothing for her partner. She did care for him and it hurt her to see him hurt by each failed attempt (when she took him seriously) and annoyed when he bantered in the middle of a battle, although she had to admit she sometimes did it too and that actually depended on her mood. Uh.

"I'm sorry. I won't do that again." Chat bowed his head. He was sorry. Because she got hurt, because she got distracted by him and hurt. But that addition of 'in the middle of the battle' made him hopeful.

She looked at him for a moment. Did she really want him to stop? Like completely? She was having second thoughts. Because she did it too.

"Look, it is okay, most of the time, just not … when it distracts me." It broke her heart to see him sad. Truth to be told, if they were not so good in inventing a perfect line to return to their partner, they would not be so good against Frightingale. That had encouraged Chat to push a little further and learn his lady better.

"I'm confused. I thought you liked it because you returned my banter. Then you told me to stop the next time. Then you would just smile the third time." The tone of his voice revealed that Chat was apologizing. "I'm just sorry I did not realize it sooner."

"That is okay Chat. You're good." Ladybug sighed. He was telling the truth, she was like that, inconsistent. There were times when she returned his banter even in the middle of a battle. It was easy to be annoyed by his flirting. It only started to hurt for real when she realized he meant it and that she hurt him each time she refused his advances. So, yes, maybe it was better to stop it completely.

"It is okay, Chat, just, if I tell you to stop doing something, please stop, because if you continue to do that, it means you don't respect me." She muttered with her eyes firmly on the akuma who yelled something about respect too.

"I have nothing but respect for you." He countered.

"Are you sure?" She raised her eyebrow but kept her eyes on the akuma.

"Just stop this noise." A voice yelled. It was a random Parisian civilian neighbour who had had enough of the shouting in the street in the middle of the night.

A light bolt hit the man on the French balcony and he got another head and another pair of arms.

"Hey" The other head said. "I thought I told you to tell those two to shut up."

"I have." The first head answered.

"I guess we know their power now." Ladybug rolled her eyes.

They were sneaking up to the akuma and studied them.

"The akuma could be the bracelet on her hand or the watch on his hand." Chat whispered.

"The belt, that strange brooch, the necklace … " Ladybug continued to list the items.

"They look like they got assembled from two persons." Chat smirked.

"That's because they were." Ladybug elbowed him.

"Oh yes." He was rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"So, how do we sneak up to someone with two heads?" She asked exasperatedly.

They did sneak up and have stolen the items, one by one, it took a lot of their time and many attempts, both recharged once, he used cataclysm on her bracelet, she tried a lucky charm and failed. Then Chat used his cataclysm the second time as they tried to capture the akuma by collapsing a tent onto them. It did not work and he quickly vaulted home to recharge Plagg and take more cheese.

There were two items left to snatch when Chat got hit, only because he threw himself in front of Ladybug to protect her.

Their bodies merged, there was only Chat's pair of legs, two heads and four arms, one Chat's hand held a baton, one Ladybug's arm held the yoyo.

"Finally together." Chat grinned. It was like a reflex to him. He was tired. They were in the middle of a battle. It was just something he did.

"You just can't stop yourself can't you?" She retorted, but she sounded just tired not angry.

"I'm sorry." His head hung low. He was such a disappointment to himself. He made a promise and broke it in the span of a single akuma battle.

"Old habits die hard I guess." She smiled back, she was tired, but it was a smile.

"It was just a joke." Chat winked. "It really was, I didn't mean ..."

"Yes, yes, okay, I get it." She rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." he relied sheepishly.

"You're welcome." She smirked.

"Now, where were we with the akuma?" He sighed.

"Well, two more items to go and we are just one target now." Ladybug sighed.

"I am sorry that I hurt you, Ladybug." He repeated.

"Not now Chat." She whisper shouted.

"Yes, sorry, two items." He replied.

"Not calling our powers if not absolutely needed." She warned.

"Any idea what happens if they hit us twice?" He added.

"Nope." Ladybug smirked.

"Let's go." He smirked.

"You did not hurt me, by the way." She said casually while they were mid air.

"What?" Chat whispered. It was her who always complained that he distracted her while talking in the middle of the battle.

"Your flirting, it did not hurt me, it is just distracting." She repeated.

"But it is my job to be a distraction." He protested. Then he remembered his own initial intent. "Sorry." He muttered.

"I guess you are just too good at it." She said to herself, but Chat was too close not to hear.

They chased after the akuma. In the end she called for the lucky charm and got a hand mirror.

"Finally." Chat smirked. To him, it was clear.

"Something to deflect those rays?" She asked herself more than anyone else.

"Why is it so small?" He complained.

She narrowed her eyes. She was looking for clues, until she saw the akuma.

"It is not a shield it is a clue." Ladybug whispered. "There is the a handle of the same shape sticking from that pocket."

"You have not spotted it before, My Lady?" He teased.

"Now you are pushing it." She retorted.

"Okay, Let's go for it." Chat walked along the rooftop towards the akuma.

"Get their hands busy." She ordered.

Chat used cataclysm on the street light on their way. The akuma caught the pole, Ladybug wrapped the akuma and their hands to the street light, Chat jumped and clawed the pocket. The mirror fell to the ground and broke.

"Seven years of bad luck." Chat teased.

A violet butterfly floated out and she cleaned it. She tossed the mirror she had into the air and a swirl of ladybugs washed over the city. Ladybug and Chat Noir split into two bodies. They faced a young couple. They had one of those middle of the night arguments that they both refused to finish.

Their miraculous beeped for the first time just before they jumped to a rooftop nearby and bumped their fists.

"Um, could you please, sort of, tell me what I do wrong, because I am not good at this stuff, you know?" Chat pleaded for instructions, preferably nice, simple and clear.

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "You know when you try to kiss me in the middle of a fight?" Chat looked down in shame. But then there was light glimmer in his eyes and a twitch of a smile, because she added "Only 'in the middle of a fight?" he asked.

"You annoy me to pieces." she whisper shouted. "Please stop giving me roses." She added in calmer tone "And please do not call me Bugaboo."

"I'm really sorry. I just recently learned that what I did could be sexual harassment." Chat Noir was determinedly looking at his boots.

"Disrespectful? Yes. Sexual harassment? I would say no. Save the kissing attempts. Well even that."

She was waving her hands nervously. Chat looked at her.

"We are friends Chat. Friends can tell each other anything." She smiled. He was hurting because he believed he hurt her. She realized she did not want him to suffer.

"Anything?" He beamed at her. But then he sighed. He knew there was more.

"Just please do not refer to us as a couple." She whispered with so much pain in her voice that he felt it.

"I'm so sorry. I did not know that that possibility hurts you so much." Chat turned away.

Ladybug felt pain in her chest. It was very familiar pain. She had several options. She could remain silent. Let him believe what he just said was true and let them both live with their pain. She could tell some lie that would make them feel better, or at least him, but she had no idea what. Or she could tell him the truth.

"It is not the possibility that hurts me Chat. It is its absence." She stared right into his eyes and hoped he got the message.

Chat stared into her eyes, her blue eyes and her face that he could clearly see in the darkness.

"We can't be a couple Chat." She whispered. Her earrings beeped again. She swung her yoyo away.

Chat stood there for a few moments before the signal from his own miraculous reminded him to move, more confused than ever, his tired brain refused to process everything he just heard and saw.

But he stored the information for later. He was definitely going to process it. Soon.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Knight and the Damsel

Knight in distress

It was always hard to get up from bed in the morning for Marinette, they had an akuma fight late in the evening, it was an akuma made from a couple who had an argument and it took them an hour to beat them. Chat and her also had an argument of sorts. She remembered it vaguely. Marinette stumbled towards the school half asleep. The words they both spoke last night echoed in her head. He apologized, he was sorry. She was sorry for making him feel so self-loathing. She tried to remember what she actually told him. It was something important, it was something implied that he had conclude.

"You should look where you are going, Marinette." Tikki warned from her purse.

"I am looking." The girl replied groggily.

"You are not, you almost run into that pole over there." The little red kwami with black spots countered.

"My eyes are opened." Marinette groaned.

"Yes, but do you see?" The goddess of creation practically screamed.

"I see, I see." The girl repeated with her eyes barely open. She pushed her feet one in front of the other and concentrated on her balance. Tom packed her some food in case she wanted to have lunch in school today. She was grateful that the tiny red deity finally shut up. But then she was stirred from whatever and wherever her mind was (probably back in her bed) by a loud honk of a car horn.

It was Plagg who woke Adrien up, not because the tiny black cat wanted to go to school, but because he was hungry. And he really liked to whine about it. Adrien tossed him a piece of cheese and did not even try to dismiss the claims of the god of destruction that was the permanent tenant of his shirt pocket, but because he clearly remembered using two cataclysms, running back to the mansion to recharge and then running back to use the third cataclysm before the battle was over. He knew Ladybug tried at least two lucky charms and the fact that he accidentally cataclysm the first one really did not help.

The thought about last night kept rolling in his head. He apologized, then they had and argument when he told her that the possibility of them being a couple hurt her. But then she replied, and he remembered the words so well, that it was not the possibility, but its absence that hurt her. And then she clarified that they could not be together. But that meant that she was hurting because they could not be together and when he flirted with her he reminded her of that. Okay. But why would that hurt her in the first place? And why they could not be together? Just because they were superheroes? He asked Plagg so many times before, he asked again last night, but the tiny black cat only whined for cheese and dismissed any inquires about romance. The boy understood, Plagg was tired. The boy was tired too.

Then the boy remembered his original problem, and that was to clarify when and what can he say to Ladybug, and he had no conclusion. He promised not to do it, and then he did it again, not intentionally, but he did. And he wanted to talk about it in the middle of an akuma attack, again, that was something she asked him not to. Confused, physically and emotionally drained boy struggled to fall asleep as the thoughts kept haunting him.

Adrien fell asleep in the car the moment they passed the gates of the Agreste mansion. If he did not fall asleep, he would have asked his driver to stop by the bakery again. Because if they stopped, he knew he would get some pastry. He had little sleep and even less for breakfast and an empty stomach after a busy night was not good. The boy was obviously exhausted, but he remained energetic and cheerful in front of Nathalie. He was grateful to any deity who kept Nathalie from entering the car after him. That was about twenty minutes of sleep in the morning traffic. That was twenty minutes of sleep more. That was twenty … He woke up to the horn of the car he was sitting in. He opened his eyes. He was in front of the school. His bodyguard grunted. Adrien thanked him and got out, only to find equally tired and sleepy Marinette.

"Hi Marinette." He greeted.

"Hi Adrien." She greeted back.

They stood there, motionless, with their eyes half lidded and small sleepy smiles on their faces.

The large car drove away.

They were standing still. Morning breeze ruffled their hair. The chill freshened their faces a little. They breathed in the fresh air and did not move.

"Hey dude!" Nino greeted. "Hi Marinette." The boy instantly wrapped an arm around the shoulders of his sleepy best bro.

"Hi girl." Alya greeted. "Hello Adrien." Smiling girl stood next to sleepy Marinette and nudged her shoulders.

The two still did not move.

"Did we just walk into a scene where someone press pause on the video?" Nino asked Alya jokingly.

"Is there an akuma around?" Alya asked and pulled out her phone, her camera was on instantly.

"Akuma?" They both said in unison and finally opened their eyes and looked around with traces of awareness on their faces.

"Yes, it is the literature akuma, we have to bring our notebooks with reports this morning." Alya teased. Her eyes traced the features on both of her sleepy friends. She knew Adrien went to Marinette last night, she witnessed the phone call but she did not know what happened afterwards, and both of them were so sleepy. The words 'spill it' screamed from her eyes, her face, her posture, but the two sleepy teens were not getting the message, or they ignored it.

"Oh yes, have you brought your notebook? Or mine?" Marinette asked sleepily.

"I have mine." Adrien checked his bag.

Marinette took her backpack and opened. She noticed her pink notebook."I have mine too."

"Good, let's get you inside then." Alya pulled Marinette and Nino, while Nino pulled Adrien along.

"I have food." Marinette offered a box with pastries. That was sufficient for Adrien. He quickly closed the circle as they were passing the courtyard and his hand was already in the box.

He grabbed a piece of pastry and began to eat. Then Nino helped himself and studied what he got out.

"What is this?" Alya asked incredulously.

Marinette raised her eyes slowly.

"Strawberry? Raspberry? Muffins with chocolate chip." Marinette smiled as she took one and started to eat.

"Ladybug muffins. These are amazing. Was that your idea too?" Adrien spoke between two bites of food.

"Partly." Marinette shrugged.

"Ladybug muffins?" Alya asked incredulously.

"Yes, papa Tom let me try the Chat Noir muffins yesterday. Those were excellent too." Adrien put the last piece of the ladybug muffin into his mouth.

"Chat Noir muffin?" Alya exclaimed as she stared at the sweet treat that Nino held in his hand.

"Papa Tom?" Nino whispered to his girlfriend, but Adrien and Marinette did not hear him.

"Black chocolate and green pieces with mint." Marinette smiled to Alya, it did not matter how sleepy she was, she knew those creations.

"There is one in the bag if you want to try, I will take Ladybug." Adrien took one more muffin from the bag and bit off the first chunk. He leaned his free arm over Marinette's shoulders and continued walking.

"Um, can I?" He asked after a few steps. He almost facepalmed, but the fact that both of his hands were busy prevented him.

"Okay." The pigtailed girl replied timidly while all shades of red flushed over her face.

Both Alya and Nino were rather aware of the imminent danger of Marinette stumbling down at any moment. The fact that she was still on her feet and breathing was a pleasant surprise. Nino reached for the bag with the food from the bakery to save it, just in case. They were going to thank him later.

"So, I was thinking." Adrien whispered in a tone of mock secrecy. But he kept silent enough that Alya and Nino who were a few steps behind would not hear the whole conversation. "About the presentation, we should look at a few culprits while we list the offences, you know?" The boy smirked at the girl.

"Mhm" She managed to hum an affirmative sound and nod.

"Great." He grinned. "You know, no calling names, just let them know that we know and that it has a name." His eyes were still half lidded how tired he was.

They finally reached their classroom. The boy unwrapped his arm to open the door for them. Adrien stuffed the last piece of food in his mouth while he was passing the door.

"Adriekins." Chloe screeched and threw herself onto the boy in her usual morning greeting. "Why are you eating that. You will get fat and ruin your pretty face and hot body."

"Please don't do that." Adrien replied with his mouth full while he evaded her kiss on autopilot and pushed himself out of her hold a bit rougher than usual.

Marinette might have done something, she might have tripped the blonde heiress or push her away or just stand in between if she was able to produce any meaningful reaction in a nick of time. But she was sleepy and tired and was still processing the fact that Adrien Agreste threw his arm casually over her shoulders (and asked about it, just in case).

Adrien's escape from Chloe did not save the boy for long as Lila approached him from his back and latched onto his arm.

"Lila, please, no." He looked at Marinette with desperate eyes and pulled his arm out from Lila's clutch only to be caught by Chloe again. He looked so tired, helpless and desperate, hidden behind his model smile frozen on his face.

"Leave him alone, he is tired, please." Marinette pleaded and took a few steps forward as she tried to shield him. But Lila pushed her with her hip.

"Ouch, why did you do that Marinette?" Lila whined.

"You leave him alone." Chloe huffed. It was not entirely clear to whom in particular or everyone else but her and Adrien. "I will take you to the spa in my hotel and you will be back to your beautiful shiny self Adriekins." The tall blonde girl cooed.

Adrien pulled his arm free and Marinette stood between him and Lila because she wanted to give him a chance to flee. But the boy did not want to leave his friend close to the two bullies, so he pulled Marinette along as he fled to his desk. They both practically landed at their seating spots just at the moment when Ms Bustier entered the classroom.

The whole move left two confused bullies facing each other, Lila glared and fumed steam before she remembered to look hurt, Chloe scoffed and waved her ponytail as she turned away.

Nino looked with wide eyes and adjusted his hat, Alya regretted that she did not make a video from the whole scene, Alix grinned, Sabrina was ready to jump after Chloe and pull her into her seat, The rest of the class was confused or missed the event entirely.

"Lila, Chloe, please go to your seats." The teacher asked kindly with the usual gentle smile on her face.

It was not the teacher who made the two bullies go silent and give up on going after Marinette. It was the fact that both of them saw when Adrien pulled her to safety and could not comprehend what just happened. Because each of them thought how her Adrien could ever do something like that? That was so much not like him. Her Adrien would never do something like that.

The teacher took attendance and collected the notebooks with literature reports before they started the discussion about the work they analysed. The teacher did her usual routine before finally giving her own explanations and example before the subject shifted towards the next work they were about to start with. It was a nice opportunity to stay silent and enjoy a little time off for the two superheroes.


	13. Chapter 13 - A safe place

A Safe place

That morning Nathalie was in Gabriel's office.

"Was it necessary for you let him go to visit that girl yesterday, Nathalie?" Gabriel asked without giving it much weight. But Nathalie knew not to fall into a trap.

"We promised him an hour each day to prepare for that assignment. Yesterday they mixed up their notebooks and the report is due this morning. Apparently, she had notes ready." Nathalie reported without any emotion. "It was Adrien's idea to go. She had ten different ideas how to deal with that."

"It is my impression that the girl liked Adrien. And that Lila pushed them together only to tear them apart. As much as I am agitated by her outburst yesterday, I think her idea was outstanding." Gabriel pondered. "That girl would have made an excellent akuma." Gabriel concluded. He had opened photos of Ladybug on one side and Marinette on the other and compared. He was frustrated because he did not have a single photo where her earrings were clearly visible, they were always partially covered by her hair.

"You think Lila will do it again and we will have better luck this time?" Nathalie asked, suddenly more interested in the subject.

"I know she will. But this time, we are going for her alone." Gabriel grinned wickedly.

Adrien noticed Lila followed Marinette wherever the girl went. He paid attention and he made sure to be seen next to the girl a few times. But he paid for it as Lila often caught him, if even for a moment.

"I asked you to stop this Lila." Adrien brushed her off coldly. But the girl would not give up.

The boy managed to escape her and find Marinette close by.

"It might be a good idea to go to your place for lunch break if we want anything done." Adrien whispered and Marinette agreed.

They reached the bakery, picked up some food and climbed up the stairs. They ate a few pieces of pastry and concluded they would prefer to play a round of video game in her room. They climbed up. Marinette reached below her desk to set up the game and fetch the controllers.

"Could you open the window please?" She asked while she was busy with some materials she apparently threw in the same box with the gaming equipment. It was probably when she was making arms for her mannequin. She sighed and decided to take a moment to move it to the right box.

The first association to Adrien's sleep deprived brain when an order to open a window was issued was to climb up to her loft bed and open the hatch window that lead to her rooftop terrace. He opened it and got down and noticed the cork board above her bed. There were plenty of photos. There was one of him, of his face, and it definitely had a heart shaped drawing on it.

When she crawled out from under her desk, she found Adrien who stood by her bed, below the opened hatch window, and he stared at a point on her wall, above her bed. Her brain was processing the information slowly that day. Very slowly. But it reached a conclusion fast. She knew what was on that wall. It was that photograph. It was that photograph of him that she should have removed from the wall. But she could not. Just like she could not remove the boy from her heart.

"I have a confession to make." She whispered. Maybe it was time, maybe she finally felt confident to tell him, to be honest with him. Maybe it was because Chat apologized to her last night and she somehow wanted to come clean too.

Adrien had an idea what it was. He found a few photos of Luka, smaller and with Kitty Section. If it was what he thought it was, he wanted to stop her. Because if he was right, he had no idea what he would do. He descended down the ladder that lead to the loft bed, very slowly and carefully.

He knew he loved Ladybug and he knew it would be wrong to try to be with someone else, it just did not feel right. But, suddenly, he became aware he was not able to simply say no to this girl. It was hard for him as Chat Noir, not just because her father got akumatized. It was hard even before that. And this would be even harder.

She was silent, she was collecting courage. And second thoughts, and third. Maybe there was still a way to back out of this. Perhaps this was not the right moment. What if her confession blew up their project and their whole plan to tame at least those two bullies and harassers? She was not that selfish to use this for her selfish needs and finally admit to her crush how she felt about him.

He turned around while his eyes looked desperately for a distraction.

"What's that?" He asked as he pointed to the fold out schedule.

Marinette looked up. It was her fold out schedule. She blinked. Yes, that was a possible way out.

"Um, yes, that's it." Her voice came out in much higher pitch than she intended. She reached up and unfolded it.

"I um have here my schedule." She stuttered out. Adrien noticed the usual school schedule and all his extracurricular activities.

"Well it is for the whole class." She added. And only then he noticed in smaller letters there were Kim's slots when he had his swimming, then there was something for Alix, then there were days with Kitty Section.

"But it is mostly you." She looked at the floor. She looked like she was ashamed of something. She looked exactly like that day in the wax museum before she ran away, or just after she tried to kiss him, well she did not know it was him and not the statue.

Marinette was desperate, she actually wanted to tell him how she really felt about him, and now she decided to pull out only to throw herself into another hole.

"I um, never asked you about your schedule, I just learned about it, somehow, one way or another, but I never asked you, and that is what makes this wrong and." She spoke very quietly in the end.

"It is okay." Adrien smiled. "There are probably teenage magazines that publish my schedule." There were probably girls who never met him who kissed his statue in the wax museum too, but he decided not to mention that particular idea.

"Um, yes there are, but they are wrong, you see, they made an error in this one." She dug out a magazine from one huge pile in a box below her desk and pointed to a schedule. Then she realized what she just did and blushed even more.

"I am so sorry, I am such a stalker." She whispered and lowered her hands.

"That is okay, you are my friend Marinette. You can know my schedule. I am glad you care." He smiled gently.

"You do not understand, I am awful, I followed you when Lila dragged you away because I was concerned what she would do." The girl waved her arms desperate to stop herself from rambling. But her tired brain was very slow to catch up with her mouth. She knew she had to stop herself before she reached to the part with the book.

"Thank you." He smiled. "You are my knight in shiny armour and I am the damsel in distress." He moved his arms dramatically from his chest to his forehead. A week ago this admission might have sounded as if she was a stalker, but they were preparing the show together and after he learned what Lila did to her, he wasn't even surprised.

"Adrien, I called you hot stuff!" And then she slapped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were so wide that she was funny to look at.

There was a brief moment of silence in which Adrien was not sure if he heard her correctly.

And then he started laughing. It was the same laughter, the same sound of joy that came out from him that day when he gave her his umbrella.

She stared at him, but after a few seconds she laughed too. She knew that laughter. He was happy. For whatever reason it was.

"Thank you, Marinette." He finally caught his breath and was able to speak again. "I am sure there are worse names for me used on a daily basis." Yes he knew, there was no denying that. "But, I do not remember that you ever called me that."

Marinette was still trying to remember some usual reflexes, like breathing, blinking and stuff.

The boy in front of her was smiling his warm smile.

"I was talking with Alya." She squeaked out from behind her hands. There was no way she was admitting the phone theft, okay, she knew she had to stop herself.

"Just you and her?" He raised an eyebrow teasingly. The model Adrien left, his usual timid manners were gone, there was mask less Chat Noir standing in the middle of Marinette's room.

She nodded. Her hands were over her mouth. Technically, there was also his voicemail account present because it got recorded. She could not trust herself to speak.

"Well." He put a hand on his chin as if he contemplated the seriousness of her crime. "Then I'll let it slide this time." He teased. "But if you ever want to use a nickname for me again" He raised an index finger. "You are expected to contact me and ask my permission to use it." And then he burst out laughing.

Marinette lowered her hands, he was teasing her, the boy was teasing her, he was not angry, or sad.

"Seriously, we are friends, Marinette." These words stung little bit less than before when he called her his friend. "You can tell me anything." He was certain she would never intentionally hurt him. She never intentionally hurt Chloe, nor Lila, for that matter.

They decided for the game and she was setting it up while he lounged on her chaise.

Once she saw the game was loading, she turned around and saw Adrien fell asleep while sitting on the chaise. He held the controller in his hands. Marinette took the other controller and sat at the other end of the chaise. Before the game finished loading, she was asleep too.

Tom woke them up.

"You still have school in the afternoon, don't you." The huge man called.

Both teens opened their eyes and were rather surprised to find themselves where they were. Marinette usually fell asleep on her chaise or in her bed. Adrien, on the other hand, was not even in his room.

"What is the time, papa?" Marinette asked and yawned.

Adrien was blinking his eyes open and looked around dazed.

"School starts in quarter of an hour, give or take a few minutes." Tom grinned.

"Okay, we have time." The girl whined and laid back.

Adrien jumped to his feet.

"Come on, Marinette, we'll be late." He offered her his hand and she took it and got to her feet.

"We have another meeting with those experts." Marinette reminded all three of them.

"And Ms Mendeleev before that." Adrien reminded her.

That started the girl. They were both out from the door in less than a minute and walked swiftly towards the school. They entered the classroom seconds before the bell rang and the teacher casually pointed them to share the first bench.

"He will soon be late for school just like her." They both heard a comment from the back and ignored it.

Ms Mendeleev was thrilled with the results from the experiments Adrien and Marinette performed during the last class in the lab. Marinette could swear she heard Lila hiss and groan in the back. The teacher ignored that and continued to teach the theory as this was a class in a normal classroom.

Another well planned retreat, they both packed their belongings before the final bell rang, and a quick run down the corridor, and they were both in a safe place of the classroom where several of those experts were already sitting.

"Adrien, Marinette, nice of you to join us so promptly. We will not start for another fifteen minutes sou you have time to ..." The same lady from the last meeting wanted to tell them they do not have to wait in that classroom.

"No" They both replied in unison.

"I mean thank you." Marinette added.

"It is really nice of you but can we stay here, please?" Adrien pleaded.

Jean, the same man who reacted to Marinette's plot raised his eyes from his tablet.

"Is there anything wrong?" He asked calmly.

"Let's just say." Adrien started.

"We are trying to avoid." Marinette continued.

"More material for our presentation." The boy finished the sentence.

"We think we have enough." The girl added.

"Who am I to disagree on that one." Jean smiled. "School is supposed to be a safe place. If your teacher and your principal continue to do nothing about it, please contact me." The man gave them a note with his phone and an email address, it was not the usual business card. "You can contact me even if you need an advice that is related to problems of this nature you encounter outside of school." He added to Adrien.

The two kids opened their presentation and went through it quickly, even before the meeting started. Since the two of them were practically finished and had only to practice their presentation, they were quickly released. They were among the few deemed ready to continue on their own. Most of the other students were far less invested in the project and fell behind with the obligations.


	14. Chapter 14 - Eating

Eating

Marinette tried the door to the library. It was locked. There was a message that the librarian was absent temporarily on a meeting outside of school.

"Well, this option is excluded." She sighed. She opted for the classroom next door, but most of the classrooms were locked up this late in the afternoon.

"Why don't we go back to your home?" Adrien grinned. He was getting hungry just at the thought how he was met each time he dropped for a visit. Her home felt safe ad it offered food.

Marinette dreaded going back to her room. She clearly remembered how she almost admitted that she loved him. She admitted to a few other embarrassing things instead. Well, she knew that her mouth and her brain are going to be there with her wherever she went, they might as well go to her home.

"We can go to the bakery." She smiled back, but it was slightly forced.

"Hi papa." Marinette greeted her father when they entered through the side door.

"Hi Marinette, Adrien." The large man greeted. "I am just cleaning up, your mother is upstairs, making dinner. You will join us for dinner, Adrien?"

"I, um, thank you." The boy smiled straight from his stomach.

The memories of the brunch with Chat Noir passed through her head together with a big red no.

"You don't have to if you don't want." Marinette cut in. "Adrien is used to food planned by a dietitian and prepared by a professional chef." She told her father. There was something in the was her father looked at Adrien, she could not tell what it was, but she feared the next Weredad.

Tom's smile fell just for a fraction of a second because he noticed Adrien's smile fell too, for much longer, and the boy stared at Marinette. He recognized a hungry boy when he saw one.

"Well, your mother is perfectly capable of preparing a dinner." Tom grinned, his tone was teasing.

"Actually, I'd like to join you for the dinner." The boy said with a shy smile. "Besides, I had so much of your excellent pastry already that one more dinner would not matter."

"I thought you are not allowed to eat out of the schedule. I'm sorry." She apologized to both Adrien and her father and stared at her feet. She felt guilty for her earlier panic induced outburst.

"As long as you don't tell my father about it, or Nathalie. My driver will not talk." The boy shrugged. Apparently that settled soe thoughts in Tom's head.

"Of course, go upstairs and make yourself comfortable, son." Tom smiled and winked.

"Thank you." The boy smirked.

"Oh wait, I have some treats over here." Tom handed him a box.

Marinette was already running up the stairs.

"Please, please, just not Sweethearts' vol-au-vent for two again." She muttered. "And no soufflé."

Adrien followed and carried the box with him. The lid was not transparent, he tried to guess what was inside by the smell, but failed.

Marinette ran into the kitchen. Adrien was entering the flat.

"Hello dear." Sabine greeted loudly.

"Hi maman." Marinette almost shouted.

"I thought Adrien was coming over again this afternoon so I made a bit more for dinner." The woman spoke as she stirred the contents of the pot.

"He is. Maman, please tell me papa did not make another show." Marinette pleaded.

Sabine glanced back and noticed Adrien was coming over.

"What show? I do not know what are you talking about." Sabine replied teasingly.

"You know!" Marinette sighed and took a breath. "When ..."

"A cooking show?" Adrien asked at the same time Marinette started speaking as he thought she was finished.

"No." She screamed. "I mean yes." She flailed her hands. "I mean no. Not a TV show. It is just that papa sometimes makes this exaggerated .."

"It is okay, Marinette, I can eat anything. Don't worry. Just as long as my father doesn't know." The boy put the box on the table and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, if you are expecting a show, you will be disappointed." Sabine smiled to both of them. "Dinner will be in fifteen minutes. Why don't you find something to do in the meantime."

Both kids went up to her room as if that was something they did every day (well they did, but just this week). Adrien felt like he was at home there. There was his chair, his spot on the chaise, the place where he left his school bag.

"Why don't we go through that homework Mme Mendeleev gave us?" Adrien proposed instead of games or some other activity.

"Okay." Marinette reached into her backpack and pulled out the book and the notebook. She put it on her desk and started to pull up the chair closer when she got interrupted.

"We can't solve it now, I was thinking of just reading the problems to be able to think about them and how to solve them." The boy was sitting on her chaise and patted the seat next to him.

She approached slowly and carefully as if she was some wild animal that sneaked towards David Attenborough who was waiting patiently.

They read the problems together. The homework was a variant of the experiments they did few days before, but this time they were not supposed to do the experiments and compute the results, but to use appropriate formula. They were discussing one particular problem when Sabine called them down to set the table.

Adrien opened the same cupboard he saw Marinette use on Monday and took out four plates without thinking. Sabine looked at the boy and then again at Marinette and kicked a small stool that both of them used to reach the top shelves back under the table.

"So if you have one litre of boiling water and add five litres of water at a room temperature of let's say twenty degrees … " Adrien was explaining while Marinette distributed the plates and the cutlery.

"I just don't understand." Marinette sighed.

"It is simple." The boy smiled.

"It is not." She took a small pot with the sauce. "This is a pot of one litre and the sauce inside is boiling, weather or not it is one hundred degrees is irrelevant."

Adrien raised his eyebrows.

"But if I add five litres of water inside it will flow over, it just won't fit inside." The girl finished.

Adrien laughed his heart out. This girl was so funny.

"You can laugh all you want, my Marinette tried it, she knows." Sabine teased her daughter.

"Maman" Marinette whined.

"She would always start to prepare something in a small bowl and then move it into larger and larger one as she had to add the ingredients." Sabine was not going to back down from this story.

Tom arrived with a box of pastries and they sat down to eat dinner. To the girl's relief it was just a simple dinner of rice and sauce with cooked vegetables.

"So help yourself." Tom grinned and looked at the boy.

"I um" Adrien looked at the empty plate and a full pot of rice. "Can you go first?" He looked at Marinette. The truth was, he never filled his own plate, he never determined what goes inside and which amount. It was always someone else who made those decisions for him.

"Ever the cavalier." Tom smiled.

Marinette blushed and took her plate, she put one spoonful of rice and then the vegetables and the sauce. The Adrien repeated the offer to Sabine but she motioned for him to go first, so he did, everything, exactly as Marinette did, including the amount.

"Come on, you can take more." Tom was eager.

"Wait, Tom, perhaps the boy doesn't like it." Sabine scolded.

Adrien was confused. He looked at Marinette's plate, then he looked at his own. Everything was exactly the same, well more or less, perhaps some pieces of rice and vegetables rolled to the side differently.

"You can take more if you like it." Tom concluded and grabbed the serving spoon. Once everyone had food on their plates, they started to eat.

Needless to say, Adrien could eat more. And he was quickly encouraged to take more food. And he ate it again. And Tom insisted that it was perfectly okay if the boy took a third round. Adrien reluctantly did so.

"You mean I can eat as much as I want?" The boy asked while he was filling his plate again.

There was long odd look exchanged between Tom and Sabine.

"I told you why he was skinny." Tom whispered.

"You usually don't?" Sabine asked quickly to mask what her husband just said.

Adrien shook his head.

"To be honest, I never filled my own plate. It was always served before me." The boy was not sure if his admission was not hurting them. "I don't mean that you were supposed to serve me, I just … "

"You mean you never chose what you eat and how much?" Marinette furrowed her brows.

"No, it is always chosen, calculated and determined by someone else." The boy shrugged. That was how they lived. He knew that was how Chloe lived too, in a hotel, between chefs and the servers. He knew Kagami had similar strict regime imposed by her mother.

"And you are not supposed to eat the pastry I brought?" The girl continued.

"Nah, but I like it, and you won't tell my father." The boy smiled back.

To say that Sabine and Tom were currently speechless would be correct. To say that Tom just might get akumatized after the same boy ate in his kitchen for the second time because of the rightful anger towards the said boy's father would also be correct.

Sabine put her hand over his. Tom was taking deep breaths. Marinette watched her own father worried that a violet butterfly might once again flutter into the kitchen in her home.

"It is okay Tom. Marinette would not mind to bring this boy some of his favourite pastry each day." Sabine cooed gently. Tom was calming down.

"Son, you are always welcome here." Tom finally spoke.

Marinette smiled shyly and looked at the boy. Adrien could not believe his luck. This man was calling him son. He played games with him. They practically invited him to drop by for an all you can eat experience whenever he felt like it or needed it.

"Adrien, this is serious." Sabine said gently. "You are teenagers. You are still growing. You need food for your growth. I know that overweight is now much bigger issue than it used to be, but you are very slim. You need to eat more to let your hormones do the job."

Well that last statement in her lecture was a bit too much for her daughter who started to choke on her food. Adrien merely blushed.

"Growth hormones." Tom cut in. "Sabine was talking about growth hormones."

Marinette was breathing again. She decided she was red in her face because she almost choked seconds ago.

Later they examined the contents of the box. Tom brought some leftovers, some unsold slightly crushed items and a few more experiments with the most recent idea for the new kind of muffins.

"So, I wanted to make a more fruity version, these are with blackberries and green decorations." Tom pointed to a new set of Chat Noir muffins.

"I think that those with the dark chocolate were better." Adrien shared his opinion but finished the muffin anyway.

"That is excellent, but I need more options." Tom grinned. "These will be made per order. The one with dark chocolate might be available on a daily basis in the shop."

Adrien perked up. He felt flattered as the wielder of the Chat Noir miraculous. And this was the man who got akumatized because the said superhero refused his daughter.

They continued to eat cookies and cakes. Marinette reached for the macarons, more than once.

There was one being unsatisfied. Plagg scratched and scratched until Adrien managed to sneak a piece of cheese pastry into his shirt.

Later that evening, a pigtailed girl was having her rant and her kwami listened.

"Gabriel Agreste is worse to his own son that Hawk Moth is to all of his victims." Marinette groaned.

"What do you mean, Marinette?" Tikki stared at the girl with wide blue eyes.

"At least I can undo everything Hawk Moth does with miraculous ladybug cure, but I do not have any cure that could simply undo what Adrien is going through."


	15. Chapter 15 - Breakfast

Breakfast

It was the D-Day, it was the day they were going to present the presentation about bullying and sexual harassment and perform their sketches.

Adrien was on his feet before the alarm clock went off. During his morning routine he started to exercise his lines. He sneered, he glared, he put on a sly smile, he checked his menacing and taunting look. The boy was rather satisfied. He was never asked to do such looks on the photo shoots, but his practise as a model definitely helped.

"Ready to taunt your girlfriend?" Plagg teased.

"The only thing taunting is the smell of your cheese." Adrien replied while he pinched his nose, so the sound of his voice was rather unusual.

"I thought you were impersonating few taunting personas." The tiny black god of destruction floated out of Adrien's reach and swallowed the whole Camembert triangle he was given.

"You are right about them, but that does not make your cheese smell any nicer." Adrien retorted as he checked his school bag and got out from his room. He was finishing his breakfast when Nathalie appeared with his schedule and raised eyebrows.

"Good morning, Adrien, you are early today." She greeted.

"I have to be early today, for the presentation." The boy replied calmly. He hid all his excitement about the whole project.

"Does that mean you are finished with it and we can resume your normal obligations for the next week?" Nathalie asked without looking at him.

"Actually, no, we should probably plan it for the next week too." Adrien replied as he feigned disinterest. In fact, the boy hoped he could make those joint sessions with homework and studying and playing games more frequent in the future even after the assignment was finished. "We have to see what will be the outcome from today."

Nathalie frowned but said nothing.

Adrien hopped over to the waiting car. To his initial terror, Nathalie followed him, but then she let him go away without her.

"Take us to the bakery, please." Adrien asked with a wide smile once they passed the entrance to the Agreste mansion.

"Marinette, you have a presentation with Adrien today." Tiki chirped to wake up her sleeping chosen.

The girl was on her feet so quickly she felt dizzy.

"Not so fast Marinette,." The tiny goddess of creation warned her chosen with teasing lilt in her voice as she floated to her face. "You might wish to open your eyes before you try to climb down the ladder that leads to your bed."

Marinette squinted her eyes open and then closed them instantly.

"Can't, too bright." She moaned in protest.

"If you fall, you do not get to perform with Adrien, nor help him with his problems." Tikki knew what to say to motivate her chosen.

Marinette blinked her eyes open and yawned.

She got herself ready in no time and leaned over to give the mannequin a kiss before she opened the hatch door and went down from her room. She went to the kitchen to fetch some breakfast but was met with a surprise. Because there, at the table in her kitchen sat none other that Adrien Agreste and ate a piece of pastry.

"Good morning Marinette." The boy greeted her as soon as he noticed her approach.

"Adrien! Mood gorning?" The girl squeaked. Great. All those efforts and she could still stammer and mix the words up in front of him. The boy smiled and attributed it to the early morning.

"Sorry, your parents said it was okay to wait for you here and told me to help myself, so I did." The blonde boy looked at her gently with those warm green eyes that she almost melted on the spot. "They warned me you are not a morning person." He chuckled when he noticed her dazed expression and complete absence of any further reaction.

"Sorry." She muttered. "Good morning Adrien." She squeezed out. Correctly. Yes. Victory.

She approached the table, slowly and carefully. It would have been soundlessly if she did not stumble into a chair before she pulled it out to sit across the boy.

The food was on the table, the milk and the juice, there was her favourite bowl that she used for cereal as it always was for her breakfast, that was what her mother left her on the table each morning if she was not able to be there herself.

"Sabine said that you have everything you need here on the table." Adrien shrugged as he munched on a croissant. The piece of pastry was disappearing quickly, while Marinette still had to reach for her food.

The truth was, she was not really hungry. The nerves and the anticipation of the presentation they were supposed to have the first thing in the morning somehow smothered any other feeling, like hunger or sleepiness.

"You should eat something, Marinette." The boy offered her the box of pastries and she took one, absent mindedly, before he took more food.

She was eating in silence and stared at the boy before her. The boy before her was obviously hungry and deprived of anything that a home should give him. She used to idolize him, because he was perfect, but now she knew how unhappy his life was, and somehow, with all that, she loved him even more. She smiled gently at him.

Adrien offered her milk as he was filling his cup. She nodded and pushed her cup towards him.

"I like your family, Marinette." The boy smiled so gently, his eyes were warm and green. "You are all so full of love and care for each other and everybody else."

"And food." She teased. Then she covered her mouth. Did she just tease him? That was awful. But the boy laughed. So she laughed with him. She needed to laugh her other thoughts away. Because there was that brief moment when she heard 'I like you' but then she heard the rest 'r family'. Her brain was too overwhelmed.

"Yes, and that too." He added.

They ate in silence for a moment.

Adrien remembered his photo with a heart on it. He knew he would never stop loving Ladybug. There was no way. Marinette was his friend, he needed a friend like her. He wanted a friend like her. He wanted her in his life. Was he so selfish? Because he wanted to keep her for himself.

Marinette kept staring at her food. She would remind herself to eat from time to time. There was Adrien Agreste in her kitchen eating breakfast with her before school. It was the same boy she fell in love with and it was not the same boy presented on all of those posters she had. She always knew those posters were just reminders, she kept only those few pictures that seemed closer to his genuine self, but now she knew even those were far off.

And there was a girl he loved (and did not like his jokes). Marinette was certain that the girl was Kagami. And she knew Kagami had feelings for him too. That is why she let them have their ice cream. For her, it was meaningless to stay in the way of happiness of her two friends. Because that was what they were, her friends. If she pushed, she would have lost two friends and gained nothing because she knew he loved someone else.

"Are you ready for the show?" The boy asked nervously, it was obvious the nerves got the better of him too. He took one more piece of pastry. "I suddenly feel nervous, it helps me to have something to eat."

"Actually, I was so nervous that I was not even hungry. But it is getting better now." She sighed as she stared at her plate.

They were sitting and eating in silence for a moment.

"Huh, it is time to go isn't it?" Marinette huffed out reluctantly as she noticed the clock on the wall.

"I have not even noticed." Adrien smiled apologetically. "I let my driver leave me here so we can walk together to school. It is nice weather and all."

"We should really start right away then." Marinette jumped to her feet and collected the plates from the table.

The girl took a cookie from the box and sneaked it into her purse on her way out. The boy had fed his kwami long ago, before she descended the stairs that lead to her room. He knew that was the only way to keep him silent.

"Bye maman, bye papa." Marinette greeted with a wide smile.

"Have a nice day at school." Tom replied as he passed a box with food for lunch to Adrien with a gentle smile. The man winked after the boy took it.

"Good luck with your presentation today." Sabine greeted and waved after the two teens while she was tending the counter in the busy bakery.

"Was that Adrien Agreste?" A customer whispered.

"Adrien Agreste is eating in this bakery?" Another customer squealed.

"That was my daughter's classmate." Sabine replied with a polite smile. "They have a presentation for a project in school."

Tom arrived and carried a tray with fresh pastries.

"I am telling you, that was Adrien Agreste." The fist customer repeated the claim louder.

"A supermodel eats in your bakery? That is a great promotion." The second customer told Sabine.

"As far as I know, no supermodels eat in this bakery." Tom replied with a smirk and left. "Only really hungry boys." He muttered to himself later.

"Please do not start any rumours." Sabine begged. "We do not want a lawsuit from his brand." She added as an explanation. She also did not want cameras, journalists and fans snooping around the bakery and her family.

The two kids were blissfully unaware of the events that unfolded in the bakery after they left. They had other concerns on their plate.

"Do you think this will work?" Adrien asked about their plan, the presentation and the acts.

"I don't know. I hope it works for you." Marinette shrugged and walked along the boy.

"Chloe will get it. She is not stupid." The boy said hopefully.

"She also knows she is a bully and is proud of it." The girl sighed. "But it should work for you."

"This is not just about me you know." He replied. "I feel so selfish."

"You are not. Besides, it was nice of you to provide the examples to play." She knew it was also brave of him to expose himself like that, it was a big deal for her, his deal seemed bigger.

"Yeah." He sighed, he would prefer so much more if he had none and he was more and more aware of each time he was made feel uncomfortable by his father's associates or in the photo shoots.

"You are also very brave, Adrien." She added shyly.

"It is you who are brave and stand up to bullies." The boy smiled gently at her and she blushed. "And you are helping me stand up for myself now. Thank you Marinette."

The girl was slightly loosing control of her legs as they started to turn into jelly and she still had to walk up the stairs that lead to the school gate and all the way to the classroom. And she should tell him something, she had to reply to those nice words.

He noticed she slowed down and stumbled a little. He caught her arm just above her elbow.

"Hey, don't get scared now." He whispered.


	16. Chapter 16 - The Presentation

Hi all. There is something wrong, I found a way to post new chapters but I can't read any comments nor other stuff at the moment.

Presentation

"Good morning class." Ms Bustier greeted when she entered the classroom. She took attendance quickly before she cleared her throat.

Principal Damocles entered the classroom.

"The school principal is joining us because we are going to have that presentation about bullying and harassment right now before we proceed with the normal curriculum for the day." The teacher announced and got several displeased noises from the audience, as few students planned to ditch that.

Adrien and Marinette did the presentation together, just like they practised, they switched the speaker between sentences and kept it short and to the point. They listed all the different forms of harassment and bullying. Adrien did not forget to make an eye contact with the culprits while Marinette concentrated on her speech. The girl was blushing, but she did not stammer nor stutter nor mix up her words.

"We are not here to call upon anybody in person, we would just like to give examples of behaviour that should be corrected." Adrien announced.

"We are going to do the bullying now." Marinette announced and took a step back.

"I'm so sorry. I messed up that scene again. I'm gonna do better on the next take, I promise." Marinette started to act what Mylenne did before she became Horrificator.

Adrien scoffed and examined his nails.

"that monster mask he's wearing is so... realistic and scary!" Marinette continued her text.

"You ask me, he doesn't even need a mask!" Adrien mocked and laughed at his own words.

"I need to sing my happy song, it always makes me feel better... Smelly wolf, smelly wolf, stinky breath and slimy ..." Marinette was singing the same song as Mylenne.

"And the Oscar for best pathetic scaredy-cat afraid of its own shadow goes to… you!" Adrien exclaimed.

Adrien impersonated Chloe so well that everyone started laughing after the first few words. He examined his nails and pretended to swing a ponytail he did not have while he turned on his heel.

"Most of this behaviour is just plain rude, but repeatedly telling someone ..." Marinette explained what was wrong in that scene briefly.

Principal Damocles was glowing with pride. His school did an excellent work. He even had something to show off to the other school principals. He had plans.

"I do not have to be here and take this." Chloe scoffed as she got onto her feet with an intention to leave. The similarity of her behaviour to Adrien's performance was not lost to anyone.

"Actually you do, Chloe." Ms Bustier replied gently.

"I can call my daddy and let him know what you are doing here." She waved her phone.

"Oh please do call him, invite him over and tell him we are having the programme his office prescribed, he will be thrilled to see this." Principal Damocles replied with a proud smile. Perhaps he would not need to wait for that meeting in the city hall about the project, perhaps he could brag about his accomplishments even now.

"I am sure he did not mean any of this." Chloe groaned and sat back into her seat. She was typing on her phone furiously.

"We can proceed with the second sketch about bullying." Adrien announced and took a position by the classroom door. Marinette stood in the middle of the classroom and stared at him.

(What follows is a shorter version of the actual conversation).

"Marinette? Oh, are you crying?" Sly smile, Lila's manners, Adrien was excellent. He knew each move and he felt how the culprit recognized herself from the first line.

"No, I'm not!" Marinette replied as she looked away for a moment.

"I can sense that you don't like me, but I don't understand why. We barely know each other. Don't tell me it's because of this new seating arrangement in class!" Adrien continued taking a step forward after each sentence. Marinette turned away from him. "It is! Of course, you're just jealous. You and I could be friends, and who knows, I might even be able to help you with that boy you like." The last three words did not roll of his tongue as well as he intended.

The reaction of the girls in the class was becoming rather diverse. Chloe had a self satisfied smug smile on her face, because this was not about her. Sabrina was relieved for the same reason. Lila glared at the show and missed the first glances towards her from the rest of the class. The rest of the class was mostly confused. They knew Adrien was playing Lila at this point. They knew Marinette played herself and they mostly remembered when that must have happened. Ms Bustier hitched a breath as she recognized whom was Adrien playing.

"You and I will only be friends the day you stop lying! I can't prove it, but I know for a fact that you lied just about everything you talked about today!" Marinette replied with the same desperate and angry voice.

"I only tell people what they want to hear." Adrien moved as smooth as ever, his voice was sweet but menacing, he was close to her and Marinette hit the teacher's desk with her back, there was no space for her to move.

"It's called lying!" Marinette screamed back but the fear and the pain in her eyes were a memory, not faked. The pain of recognition just stung through the rest of the class.

"There's nothing you can do about it, anyway. People can't resist when they hear what they like to hear. If you don't want to be my friend, fine! But soon you won't have any friends left at all. And trust me, I'll make sure you never get close to the boy you like." The boy was clearly threatening the girl.

There was a muffled scream in the back of the classroom. Everyone turned towards Lila. She started to utter excuses and even tried to stop the performance, but the teacher told her they had to do it now. Adrien took a step back and started over his last reply. He might have been even better this time as he saw the way Lila looked at him.

"You are either with me or against me." Adrien was excellent, a sly smile, a glare, a threatening look.

Lila was steaming. She had to turn it around into her favour and she had to do it quickly. She wanted the boy back on her side. But what was she supposed to say? Well, she could always say that was how Marinette threatened her in the bathroom, not the other way around. She raised her hand.

Ms Bustier knew well what this was about, the shock slowed down her response.

"The questions will be taken in the end." Principal Damocles stated simply, he was impatient to see the rest. Lila put down her hand, but she feigned being hurt and cried 'I can't believe she threatened me and used me like this'. She was going to take Adrien and all the class in one go. Just wait.

"Now we should give you a few examples of sexual harassment that happened in this school." Adrien announced and took a step back.

Marinette took a step away from him and took a deep breath. She clenched her fists and told herself that she could do it. The boy explained about nicknames, personal space and unwanted advancements.

"Oh Adriekins." She exclaimed and threw herself onto the boy as she pretended that she wanted to kiss him. She knew she was good because she caught with the corner of her eye how Chloe winced in her seat in the first row. She was surprised that she actually kissed Adrien on his cheek before he reluctantly and weakly pushed her away. She did not push herself forward any further, it took a minimal effort from him to do that and yet she even purposefully took a step back.

Adrien was mostly surprised by himself. He instinctively grabbed Marinette to push her away at the sound of her words. But the moment he laid his eyes on her, when he saw that was Marinette, his arms did not push her away with full force like he usually did with Chloe. She even kissed him and it was not even slightly unpleasant, as he was supposed to act it was. It took an effort from him to actually react, act hurt and push her away. They did not exercise this together, Marinette trained on a dummy and he was not aware that it meant he never trained for that. He did not exercise on his own. He expected to be ready after all attacks by Chloe. He expected it would be a reflex.

The rest of the class did not notice his hesitation, they instantly recognized the act.

Marinette explained that what she did was wrong because it was unwanted.

"Please do not do that. I pushed you away for a reason." Adrien explained the response. "You should make it clear that you do not want this kind of treatment, although you might not feel good about talking about it. And telling it once should be sufficient." He aimed the last sentence at Chloe.

There was complete silence in the classroom. Well, save Alix's snickering, because her brain was already providing pictures of the two when they practised the act. And that mannequin was making much more sense.

"Okay, now the next one." Adrien announced and nodded to Marinette.

She took a deep breath again. 'It is only a mannequin, it is only a mannequin, just repeat the moves, just repeat the moves.' The girl told herself before she latched onto Adrien's arm. She put on a sly smile and fluttered her eyelashes while she muttered some nonsense about them being good for each other (some words that Marinette herself would never chose), that should remind everyone in the room of Lila and started to move one of her hands in the air over Adrien's torso as she still kept a distance of a few centimetres between her hand and his body.

Adrien grabbed her hands and pushed her away and she lowered her hands, she knew she exercised movements that lasted for a whole minute, but she was not the one to push this. Maybe this was long enough.

"You are supposed to be more pushy if you want this to look genuine." The boy reminded her quietly, but the whole class heard him. "We should start over." He announced louder.

Marinette reluctantly started over, she latched onto him, she leaned into the boy and she repeated the act from her memory, she stared at a point on the wall and pushed her hands towards him but stopped just before she could actually touch him, took one more breath and did it. Kim whistled and Adrien pushed her hands away from him again. But he did not let go of her hands instantly, it took him a few seconds to actually do it

"It is wrong to touch someone against their will." Adrien cleared up the situation and Marinette retracted her hands quickly. She even put her hands behind her back and took half a step away from the boy.

Lila was steaming in her seat and glared at the two classmates who were doing the performance. Most of the class turned towards her after the act as they clearly recognized the scene.

Adrien explained how he sometimes has to endure unwanted touches for his work and that it was all an act for the photographs and the media but that does not mean he wants to go through this in school or normal daily life. To Marinette's surprise he reached over and took her hand. "It does not mean that each touch is unwanted." The boy finished as he looked at the girl. She hitched a breath and blushed because Adrien Agreste was holding her hand in front of the whole class. He smiled. She quickly smiled back. He did one firm nod and took a deep breath. She followed almost instantly and closed her eyes.

"Ahem, we have shown you only a few examples." Marinette started the speech she knew now by heart.

"Do not do that to your classmates and friends, please." Adrien continued as he looked at Chloe, pleadingly. The girl obviously took the message as her eyes began to fill with angry tears, but she scoffed and waved her ponytail, only to hide it.

"You should also not tolerate such behaviour in others." Marinette added while she glanced towards her teacher who stared at her with her eyes wide open.

"Because, if you do, that makes you enablers. It means you approve." Adrien flicked his eyes towards the adults too.

The teacher stared at her two students with her mouth opened. The dawn of recognition slowly taken over her features. She needed time to contemplate, she needed time to accept, she needed time to decide what to do next. But, she also had to produce a reaction, like, right now. Well, she had just been lectured, like the rest of her class, and she always wanted to be a good example, so she was going to be one. She raised her hands and clapped them to praise her students.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Aftermath

The Aftermath

Marinette was blushing. Rose cooed. Alix snickered. Alya wanted to scream for so many reasons she could not possibly list them all. The rest of the class was on an emotional roller-coaster, each of them in various stages between. Adrien was still holding Marinette's hand in front of the whole class.

"Sorry dude, I had no clue." Nino spoke first while he clapped his hands, he knew Adrien would get the message even through the noise because their eyes just met.

The class applauded to the performance, Ms Bustier clapped her hands and smiled gently, proud of her two student. The teacher felt that angsty pang in her belly, she knew she did wrong by hers students, but she did not know what was the right thing to do. She always taught her students to love each other. It always worked on her. Those teachers who taught her to love and forgive where her favourite when she was a child.

Principal Damocles was beyond excited, this was the first performance on the subject that he witnessed in his school and he was pleased that everything went so smoothly.

"This is great, this is so good I am going to recommend you to perform these sketches in the other classes, well, for the whole school." The man exclaimed while he applauded eagerly even after everyone else stopped. The school principal looked at the sketches, and few of the actions looked familiar, but he never made a clear connection that Adrien and Marinette impersonated the mayor's daughter.

Marinette stared at the school principal in panic. Adrien looked rather satisfied and happy, even giddy at the prospect of continuing this experience.

"Actually, the whole point was to engage as many students into the subject and make them more active in observing and correcting such behaviour in their classmates." Marinette smiled politely. Don't get her wrong, she wanted to spend more time with Adrien and this was an excellent opportunity, but she knew the boy's schedule was packed and he could hardly afford the time. Besides, she was hurting the boy, okay.

"Oh, but I do intend to make a common performance for the whole school with selected sketches, just as the programme suggests, and you two are definitely selected." The school principal was in his element and there was nothing that would deter him.

There was one particular student who had the power to just stop that in the roots.

"I am sure my daddy would like to know just which sketches are going to be performed if he is supporting this action." Chloe turned up her phone and looked at principal Damocles.

"Of course, Ms Bourgeois, if your father has the time, he is definitely invited to attend." The school principal was just not getting the message today (if ever).

Chloe scoffed indignantly at the school principal and got to her feet. She was about to walk out the door and call her father.

"Chloe, wait." Marinette and Adrien called together.

Chloe turned around swiftly, she glared at Adrien and completely ignored Marinette.

"I learned my lesson." She mouthed to the boy with anger in her eyes.

"That was the point." He smiled back as he replied quietly.

"Principal Damocles?" Marinette called. "I think we should make our performance shorter or adapt a few sketches for the common performance."

Chloe flashed her eyes towards the girl, there was recognition as well as surprise.

"The act we showed here served its purpose." Adrien added as he looked at Chloe. "We might have to modify the acts if we are going in front of a larger audience."

Chloe visibly relaxed, switched off her phone and went back to her seat.

Adrien and Marinette bumped their fists to celebrate. They got their message across to at least one bully. Adrien always had faith that his childhood friend had the capacity to be nice, but that faith whithered once he started to go to school with her. He never had expectations from people, he was there to fulfil the expectations of others. So he never expected Chloe to imrpove, he merely hoped for it.

Marinette, on the other hand, had long years of experience with Chloe as a bully. She knew better than to expect a miracle, but the girl took the message and Marinette knew that Chloe was able to do good things too. If only she would just stop doing few bad ones. But she was Chloe.

"Can I put the video of the two of you on the school blog?" Alya shouted.

"Of course." Principal Damocles answered. "Please do."

"How could you do that to me, Adrien." Chloe gritted through her teeth and glared at her childhood friend. But he just smiled and shrugged in return. The heiress was somewhat proud of her bullying nature, that was the way her mother behaved so she did it too, as if it was expected from her. But now her childhood friend taught her a lesson. That was not okay. On the top of it, he felt humiliated by her actions towards him. What she thought was normal interaction between them was hurting Adrien. And that was lot more to take for Chloe than the fact that she was a bully.

Marinette was relieved, Chloe took the message and it was reasonable to expect she was not going to repeat doing that to Adrien although she was mad. It was highly probable she would not be a bully, at least not so often, well, one could hope.

"Can I make a comic book about your performance?" Nathaniel asked shyly. Both teens nodded in response.

"You were really good." Juleka muttered.

"What should we do if we see someone doing something like that?" Rose asked.

"Ask if everything is okay and warn the culprit that what they are doing is wrong." Marinette recited the answer from the material they got.

"You should kick their asses." Kim exclaimed.

"Great job dude." Nino winked as he played with his red hat. He was feeling a bit guilty because it was obvious his two friends acted bullying and harassment they suffered themselves and he never did anything about it to help them. He always thought Adrien was oblivious because the boy did not notice how Marinette had a crush on him. Now, Nino became aware that he himself was oblivious to his best bro sufferings. The boy felt sexually harassed by two of his classmates. Okay, Adrien was a celebrity and as a supermodel and a face of a brand he had certain status, some fans were rather unreasonable. But those were Adrien's classmates. No wonder Gabriel insisted on homeschooling his own son.

Alya was too busy writing the accompanying note for the video to comprehend the complete chaos around her nor to reflect on the fact that her two classmates admitted they have been bullied by other classmates. She had a scoop. She had a piece to write. This would guarantee her views. She was a woman on a mission. Marinette looked at her friend as a lost cause. But she knew some time later, the girl was going to reflect on everything that happened. And she was scared of that moment, because Alya was known to be distressed about her friends. She got akumatized when Felix impersonated Adrien and sent that nasty message. It was Friday, perhaps a sleepover would be a good idea.

Ivan and Mylenne gushed about their colleagues.

Sabrina did her best to keep Chloe calm. The heiress was shooting daggers at her childhood friend, there was anger and betrayal, but there was more, she understood that she hurt him and that was actually not what she intended to do. She was finally aware of what she was doing. So she was angry, at herself for it had taken this for her to understand and at the fact that it was Dupain Cheng who had to show it to her.

Max was reciting some statistical data about bullying and harassment, apparently it was far more common than anyone anticipated.

"How did you avoid being akumatized for that?" Alix shouted. She saw her classmates akumatized for less, but she did not want to say it out loud.

That had taken both Adrien and Marinette by surprise, of course everyone recognized the situations, but this was such a straightforward personal question. Adrien never had a close call with a violet butterfly, but he knew that Marinette did.

One person in the back of the room was angry. Both Adrien and Marinette noticed her glare. And both of them kept checking for a violet butterfly She was hiding her face from the rest of her classmates and pretended to be hurt and crying, but she kept shooting glares between her fingers.

"Hey Lila, I guess he is not really your secret boyfriend if they depicted that scene with you in there." Kim teased.

And that was the moment when both performers were certain a violet butterfly was imminent. And there was not much that they could do to stop it.

"If she gets akumatized she will go after you." Adrien whispered to Marinette.

"And you, oh Adrien, she will go after you. Perhaps you should go and hide?" The girl was terrified. She knew she would run away and transform and Lila akuma can search for Marinette for as long as she wanted.

Adrien inhaled sharply, he could take care of himself, he was Chat Noir, but he needed to protect the civilians and he knew Lila would go after Marinette.

Meanwhile Lila knew exactly to whom she wanted to shift the blame, she did not need to be akumatized in order to go after the girl she hated.

"That wasn't me. That was her touching him." Lila acted hurt. "How could you? Marinette! Everybody knows Adrien likes me. I am his muse." She feigned tears and covered her face with her hands.

"My father's muse." Adrien replied coldly through gritted teeth. He wanted to make sure that everybody present understood there was no way that he liked Lila, even remotely.

"What is it? Cant take it, Lila?" Chloe was looking at her nails. She got her message all right, but that did not mean she was going to be silent for this. Because nobody harasses her Adrien if she can't.

"Oh, I would not be so certain that I was a villain in any scene performed here, while I was in fact a victim in one of them, but the perpetrator played me right, I guess." The girl feigned tears, but most of the class was simply confused. Few of them stared at Marinette, others at Lila. Who trheatened who and for which seating arrangement? But there was no confusion for the part where Adrien got harassed. The students were certain they recognized the way Lila latched onto Adrien herself. There was photographic evidence for the act. Alix was whispering with Max and Kim. Everybody knew Marinette could barely talk to the boy, let alone touch him or sexually harass him.

"I think we made a great choice in Marinette to play the role of sexual harasser, she would definitely know how to do that." Lila spat her words in a tone that contradicted the way she acted hurt.

"Sorry, Lila, but Marinette is not able to talk to Adrien, let alone touch him." Alya shouted from her place. The rest of the girls nodded their heads eagerly to confirm what Alya just said, even Chloe and Sabrina joined in. Nino grinned, he knew about the mannequin, Alya even sent him a photo.

Ms Bustier and principal Damocles frowned as they took in the meaning what Lila had just said. Then principal Damocles remembered Lila had that illness that made her lie and calmed down. This was just another episode from the girl, nothing to worry about. Ms Bustier observed how principal Damocles calmed down and took the outburst as something not to fuss about, so she decided to follow the example of her older and more experienced colleague and not do anything about Lila's tantrum.

That did not deter Lila from spiralling down in her own web of lies.

"Besides, why have you chosen such mild offences Marinette, I thought you had worse things in your arsenal, you stalker!" Lila started with sweet expression but she snarled in the end. "You think I don't know how you followed us around when I was invited to his home?" Lila was sorry she did not take a photo of Marinette on that pile of trash cans.

"You were never invited." Adrien protested. Marinette looked at the boy and repeated the statement.

"Of course I was, how do you think I became the muse of your brand, Adrien?" Lila cried and sniffed through her speech. Then she feigned tears again and waited to be consoled by the whole class. But the class was preoccupied by their own confusion. Of course Rose wanted to console the poor girl because that was always her first instinct, but just like the rest of the class, something was not adding up and she withdrew.

"We should do something." Ms Bustier whispered to the school principal. She was close enough to Adrien and Marinette to overhear the whispers about Lila becoming an akuma.

"Lila sometimes has those episodes when she is lying, don't worry, it will pass." Principal Damocles replied with a confident smile.

"Lila, darling, this presentation has obviously caused a lot of distress in you, why don't you come with me to the nurses office?" Ms Bustier offered gently with her sweet smile.

"Yes Lila, that would help you." Rose piped in. The rest of the class agreed and Lila relented and left the classroom with Ms Bustier.

Gabriel stood in his office.

"Ms Rossi so agitated right now that I can't work on anything else." He said with a wicked grin and turned to the portrait of his wife.

"You are going downstairs sir?" Nathalie asked flatly, she knew her boss never missed an opportunity.

"The feeling is not so strong, she could turn the situation around in her favour. Let's wait." Gabriel proposed. "I will be downstairs and wait for the right moment."


	18. Chapter 18 - The Locker Room

The Locker Room

The class had a study session in the library because Ms Bustier lingered in principal Damocles's office. The teacher was there to discuss the steps the school and the teachers should take. Obviously, some kind of education was needed for the teachers as she herself understood that her training so far had been insufficient.

Adrien was in front of his locker. He was feeding Plagg and checking his phone. He heard when Marinette entered the locker room. She was in the library slightly longer before she left the group, she had a discussion with the librarian as a class representative and Adrien had to go and feed Plagg.

When the boy noticed his (favourite?) classmate and presentation partner entered the locker room, he just could not resist. He neatly sneaked around lockers without making a sound. He sneaked around and hid behind the door of her locker just like he did after Evilustrator and Troublemaker. He liked to surprise her like that. He still had the phone in his hand.

Adrien patiantly waited for Marinette to shut the locker door and reveal him. She was busy with something, he could not see what she was doing (which was stuffing a cookie into her purse).But then someone else entered the locker room. There were steps going around, as if someone checked if there was anybody else in there. Finally, the steps approached Marinette.

"You have been evading me." A sly voice was heard. Adrien knew who it was. It was Lila. His first instinct was to jump out from behind the door and save his princess from the imminent danger in a shape of another girl. But he remembered how him and Marinette always lacked proof of whatever Lila did. And she was always better with distorting the fact than anyone else with producing them. He switched on the camera on his phone, he also pressed to record the video as he knew it would switch off automatically after a few seconds of idle time.

"What do you want Lila?" Marinette asked tiredly as she turned towards the other girl. She knew that her evasive manoeuvres would not save her forever. But she would have preferred it lasted just a little bit longer, until the next week, perhaps.

Adrien raised his phone so that camera pointed through one of the small air holes in the door. That way he could see on the screen what was going on on the other side. 'Okay, so that is the face I should have had in the sketch.' Adrien concluded as he watched the exchange.

He still wanted to jump in between the two girls, but something prevented him, something told him to wait for the right moment. Perhaps it was his usual hesitation and avoidance of conflict, perhaps he was taking the high road again, but his guts told him to wait this time, so he did.

"I warned you, you will loose all your friends if you do not do what I tell you." Lila was walking over and swayed her hips full of self confidence.

"I haven't exactly lost all my friends, Lila." Marinette replied tiredly. 'At least not yet.' She thought to herself. Alya insisted on spending time with Lila and Marinette was becoming more and more distant from her best friend. She only hoped that today's performance would improve the situation.

"You have, you just don't know it yet." Lila had a winning grin on her face.

Marinette took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The lying brat already started the wheels moving for sure, for whatever it was this time.

"What do you want this time? " Marinette spoke quietly, but she struggled to keep her voice from shaking. It was a tough week and she was getting tired, confrontation with a lying psycho was the last thing she needed.

"I am here to make you a deal." Lila continued. "You will stop this charade of an assignment with Adrien, you will stop hanging out with the girls and you will leave our class and this school all on your own." Lila was now standing in front of Marinette and pushed her with her index finger into her chest and consequently into the door of her locker. Adrien was about to jump from his hiding, but Marinette spoke faster.

"Or else?" Marinette clenched her fists and gathered all her strength.

"I will tell his father something that will make Gabriel move Adrien from this school." Lila smiled her sly smile.

Adrien's hand trembled a little. Now he was facing a choice, if he jumped out and protected Marinette, he might be facing … what? And this threat was aimed at him as much as at the girl on the other side of the thin metal door. He was well aware what it could be.

"I doubt Gabriel Agreste takes orders from you." Marinette retorted with a shaky voice. She remembered clearly what Adrien had said on the meeting on Tuesday. But there was no way that Lila knew that. Or was there? She did follow them around for the whole week.

Adrien was not absolutely certain that Lila had no influence on his father, especially if she knew what to say. She did get the status of his muse, for whatever that meant. The last muse of Gabriel Agreste, was Adrien's mother,, Emilie, so the status stung the boy even more than it normally would.

"You might be surprised. What do you think how I got into that photo shoot with him?" Lila barked her reply. She was enjoying the power she felt so much, Adrien could see it in her face. It made him sick, he knew she was not making empty threats, the boy knew better than to hope with his father.

"Adrien did not invite you?" Marinette raised her eyebrow and actually collected courage to speak in slightly provocative voice. If only she could make Lila understand that Adrien never wanted her there, that he was not just disappointed in the girl's pushy manners.

"Nah." She waved her hand as if Adrien was insignificant. "Gabriel did." She put on her wicked smile. "Adrien had no choice but to do that photo shoot with me. You see, I am Gabriel's muse. You might have won that design competition with that ridiculous hat of yours, but it is me who has an exclusive. I can be photographed and filmed for the Agreste corporation." The girl flattered herself and assumed a pose as if she was in a photo shoot.

Marinette smiled the sad smile. So Adrien was coerced to do it. Poor boy. He really did not like the girl at all, not even then. It was not like Chloe who was his childhood friend and whom he tried to protect and understand even when nobody else did (save Sabrina perhaps).

That was a confirmation of Adrien's worst nightmares. He still wanted to jump out and protect Marinette, but then his father would pull him out from school and he would not be there for the next attack.

"You see, I have everything you ever wanted, I will have the career in the fashion industry and I will have the boy you love and I am the most popular girl in the class already, not you, I will be the class president." Lila taunted.

"But if he gets pulled out from school then you will not see him too." Marinette frowned as she proudly pointed to a flaw in the brunette's plan. She focused on saving Adrien, her own problems could wait.

"Oh, of course I will, I can go to his house whenever I want." Lila mocked. She enjoyed to brag about it although it was not the truth. Since when did she care what the truth was?

Adrien sincerely doubted that was the case. Even Chloe could not do that. But Chloe did not want to do that, the heiress expected to be paid a visit at her top floor of a luxury hotel. The prospect of even a possibility of being locked up and having only Lila for company was just too much for him to take, but he could not have Marinette change schools for him, he did not want her to.

"Besides, he might just transfer schools and I will easily persuade my mum to do the same for me." Lila fluttered her eyelashes.

Adrien made sure his phone was still filming and struggled to breathe calmly so the girls would not hear him. The last option seemed really viable. Not that he actually had the presence of mind to evaluate all the options.

"You are bluffing." Marinette was not giving up that easily.

Adrien sincerely hoped she was right.

"Are you ready to risk that?" The liar taunted back.

"How low would you go?" The pigtailed girl replied in a low voice.

"Always lower than anyone expects, that is why I get everything I want." Lila had that smile she always had when she knew she won.

"Remember what I told you, Marinette." Lila said as she finally turned and walked away.

Marinette waited for the other girl to leave before she sighed and slammed the door shut.

She squeaked when she saw Adrien and flailed her hands. She jumped backwards but he caught her and pulled her into a hug. He felt his eyes were filled with tears and his vision became blur. She was crying, but she hugged him back. They stood like that for a while. Their breathing calmed down, tears stopped flowing.

Then she noticed a violet butterfly fluttered towards them.

"Oh no, Adrien, we have to move." Marinette pulled him away with so much strength that the boy was taken by surprise. He might have expected Kagami to be able to pull him like that, But not Marinette.

They both slammed into the locker in the corner. Adrien held her tight and stared at the butterfly.

"We are strong Adrien. We are confident. We will find a solution for this together." Marinette whispered as she stared at the creature that fluttered in one spot. (At this point Gabriel might or might not feel the presence of Adrien).

"Together against the world." Adrien repeated after her as he pulled her closer, wrapped her into his arms to protect her and leaned more into the corner. He gained a few valuable centimetres between them and the butterfly.

The butterfly fluttered in the same spot for a while until it started to fly away and through the widow.

"Akuma alert, Ladyblog, quickly." Marinette shouted. She was already running away.

Adrien sent a message within seconds but when he looked up from his phone, Marinette was gone. He ran around the locker room once and called her name.

"The liar really outdid herself this time." Plagg floated by his side and muttered to himself.

"I should transform." He whispered.

"I am sure Ladybug will clean up that butterfly really soon." Plagg replied with a strange lilt in his tone.

Ladybug jumped out from a small window on the College Francois Dupont and quickly captured and deevilized a violet butterfly. She released the white butterfly and jumped back through the window. She sent a brief message from her yoyo and detransformed. Tikki flew straight back to her purse without a word.

Marinette got out from the toilet and found Adrien in the locker room. Both were visibly shaking again.

"Where did you go?" Adrien whisper shouted, ran towards her and pulled her into an embrace.

"I wanted to follow the butterfly and warn everyone to run away." She whispered her excuse.

"But it was out through the window." Adrien argued.

"And I went for the next window, it was the girls bathroom, Ladybug purified the butterfly." Marinette whispered.

"She did?" Adrien pulled out his phone.

"Yeah, she did." Marinette confirmed into his shoulder, she felt guilty for deceiving him, but technically, nothing she said was a lie.

"I am really sorry I did not step out to defend you." The boy cried.

"No, no, no, it is okay, it is better that you remained hidden." The girl shook her head.

"It is not okay." He hitched a breath. "I am such a coward. Kagami is right."

"Adrien." Marinette whispered gently. "She would definitely go to your father."

"She will go to him anyway, because you are not leaving this school." The boy held her tighter. "Do you understand?"

"But then you will ..." Marinette whispered.

"I have it on video." Adrien smirked as he held her.

"What?" Marinette asked his shoulder.

"I have it on video, it must help us somehow." The boy shrugged as he held her. He needed this as much as her.

"You mean we can show it to everybody and then..." She was already making plans.

"It can't be used as evidence, I did not get her agreement." The boy sighed. "This is not a public place, like a square."

"But she said she had a contract with your father that she can be filmed … you work for your father, don't you?" She asked, full of hope.

"I do, I am not sure if it works that way." The boy sighed.

Marinette understood that they could not ask for help from his father.

"We have to find someone who knows." She replied quietly. She knew her parents wouldn't know.

"I think it is time to call Jean." Adrien whispered.


	19. Chapter 19 - Boiling the Water

Waiting for the Water to Boil

"That girl evaded the akuma again!" Gabriel clenched his fist at the missed opportunity. "I was so close, the feelings subsided, but I am sure it was only temporary. Unfortunately someone sent an alert and the butterfly was cleansed. She is still distressed. I can feel her. If only her feelings got a little stronger. She will make the perfect akuma. She will go after Lila, Ladybug and Chat Noir will have to save Lila and then Lila can help the akuma to get the miraculous. And if my guess is right, we will have the earrings the moment the girl gets akumatized."

"Gabriel, Adrien was tagged in a video on the school blog." Nathalie informed her boss. "I think you should see it for yourself."

"School blog? I do not have the time for that. What did he do this time? Can't you deal with that?" Gabriel stared at Nathalie, but the woman simply turned her tablet around and pressed play with a blank expression on her face.

"I think it is that school project." Nathalie replied flatly. "Most of it is fine but he made a comment ..."

"This video goes on and on for forty minutes." Gabriel protested. "What is the problematic part?"

Nathalie sighed and took a deep breath.

"Adrien mentioned that he felt uncomfortable doing photo shoots." She summarized the line she found problematic.

"That is nothing new." He was surprised that such statement could possibly distress Nathalie.

"It is bad publicity." She replied flatly. "There are several bad comments about it already."

"The models are paid to look comfortable even when they are not." Gabriel brushed her off. "That is the point of their job. We are not going to waste time on each reaction. Since when do we react to comments from some online anonymous?"

Nathalie shrugged and looked at her boss expecting a further reprimand for wasting his time.

"Please leave me alone, I have to concentrate, that girl is still distressed." Gabriel brushed his assistant away.

Lila left the locker room long ago, the akuma was cleansed, but the two kids were well away from being calm. Adrien did not call Jean right away as he said he would. The boy kept Marinette in his arms while he looked at his phone. He merely verified that he had the video and how big it was. He wanted to make a copy, just in case. But he was far away from his computer, he wanted to send it to Nino.

When he opened the "To" option, _Nino was the first, but Alya was the second, so he checked both recipients. He could trust his friends with the video, right? He did not bother to type a message. He was too distressed for that.

They stood there in a hug for a few more minutes. Everyone was either in the library or gone for a lunch break and they knew they had time.

Adrien had stored the contact details of the experts advisors on dealing with bullying and harassment in his phone on the day he got them. He dialled Jean's number. The man answered promptly, the conversation was very short.

"Hi Jean, This is Adrien. There has been another incident. This is a serious threat." The boy spoke in a shaky voice.

"Yes, I filmed it on the school grounds." Adrien confirmed. Then Adrien uploaded the video where Jean told him to. They briefly said their greetings as Jean promised to contact the boy later.

It was the beginning of a lunch break so there was little chance of finding either principal Damocles or their teacher. The two of them went straight to Marinette's. He refused to let her be out from his sight. She was obviously shaken and disturbed. Adrien felt his kwami scratched and patted his chest from his shirt pocket. Marinette felt Tikki from her purse, but she did not dare to open it and peek inside. They agreed on going for the lunch break straight to her parents without words. The boy simply typed a message to his driver that he was spending his lunch break at the bakery.

They both looked very serious when they entered her house through the side door. Tom peeked from the bakery kitchen and noticed their worried expressions instantly. He wiped his hands in the apron and approached them on the bottom of the stairs.

"What is wrong children?" He asked gently.

"Papa, there is something we want you and maman to see." Marinette whispered quietly.

"Could you go upstairs? It might take some time." Tom replied calmly. "We can't abandon the ovens this instant, a fire might start."

"Okay papa." Marinette replied.

"We can wait, I will stay." Adrien smiled. Her parents did not say that they have to tend customers during the rush hour when they sell the most, her father told them about a real danger if they simply abandoned the bakery.

"I can switch them off, but even then we should not abandon them until they are reasonably cold." Tom explained in a way of apology. He brought them a box of pastries.

"Here, have something to eat while you wait." Tom sighed and went back to the bakery kitchen.

Adrien took the box gratefully.

They ate in silence and exchanged a few encouraging smiles. Jean called back just like he promised. The man only wanted to know where they were. Adrien replied and did not think more about it. They both assured the man they were safe.

"We closed the shop for now." Sabine announced. "What is it?"

Adrien gave a brief explanation. Then he played the video. It was just a few minutes, but he could see how her parents changed. Suddenly he realized they could be akumatized and he definitely did not want to fight another Weredad. He started to look around for violet butterflies, but he noticed Marinette was looking through the window already.

"We need your advice on what to do with it." Marinette stated calmly.

"I have already sent the video to one of those experts." Adrien spoke quietly.

"They should help you better than we can." Tom sighed sadly. "We are here for you. We can go to the school principal with you."

"We are really sorry you have to go through this Adrien." Sabine felt her voice wavered.

"Because the two of us can't keep your father from pulling you out from school, son." Tom added.

"And that is the biggest problem you have." Sabine added calmly.

The conversation was interrupted by the ring at the door. Tom excused himself to see who dared to interrupt their conversation. But he returned with company.

Alya stared at her phone in disbelief. Her mouth open wide. She watched the video only once, but everything was clear. She was sitting in cafeteria next to Nino who had his headphones on. Little did she know that the boy watched he same video just a minute after her. Suddenly he started swearing, really loudly. It was Max and Kim who grabbed him and calmed him down.

Alya was fuming. The anger in her eyes would bore holes in a human soul. She searched for her prey around the cafeteria, but Lila was nowhere to be seen. Mylenne and Alix noticed her distress while Ivan approached Nino. At first everyone thought that the pair was angry at each other. Nino simply shook his head unable to speak about what he saw without swearing and unsure if he was supposed to share the video with his classmates, he resorted to silent dismissal of their assumptions.

Alya, on the other hand, did not have such issues, she could hardly resist sharing such a video, she had the information, it was against her nature to withhold it, she had to share it, it was her journalistic gene, she had the scoop. She simply played it again and pushed up the volume.

None of the students could hear the whole conversation. It was hard to stay silent for each of them. Even Juleka was shouting.

Alix and Kim had a swearing contest.

"We need to show this to Ms Bustier." Rose suggested.

"We should take it to principal Damocles." Mylenne shook her head.

"I should call my father." Sabrina muttered, walked away for a few steps. took out her phone and dialled the number.

Alya played the recording once more as more students gathered to listen and demanded to hear it again. The suggestions were coming from all sides.

"Guys, stop." Nino shouted. "We have to do whatever keeps Adrien in school."

"Are you suggesting that Marinette should leave our school?" Alya shouted. "Because if you do, you should watch you back, Lahiffe!" The passionate journalist was almost livid.

"No" Nino shouted back. That shook Alya back to a state in which she was able to take in any information. Then he took a deep breath. "We are not making Marinette leave the school." He repeated quietly but decisively. "We are keeping them both."

"How?" Was a collective question.

"I don't have a clue." Nino admitted.

The suggestions were pouring like rain in April.

"We should send the video to Chloe." Alix snickered.

"What?" several people screamed at once.

"You can't be serious. She would only see Marinette away from school." Alya protested.

"What is going on in here? Why all the shouting." Mme Mendeleev demanded.

Without a word Alya played the video again. The teacher scrunched her face at the phone but watched and listened nevertheless.

Nino finally typed a message to Adrien, but he noticed the boy neither read it nor replied. He checked the news, it was good, there was no akuma around, that meant neither of his friends got akumatized.

In the meantime, Lila was trying to arrange another meeting with Gabriel, but he was too busy with deciding who to akumatize. The girl even walked over to the mansion, and called over and over, it was Nathalie who finally answered the phone.

"Hello Ms Rossi." Nathalie answered the phone.

"I have to talk with Gabriel, please." Lila pleaded.

"Mr Agreste is too busy to take on your call or to meet you right now." Nathalie replied flatly.

"It is about that school project." Lila rushed her words. "You have to pull him out from school, instantly, to protect him, that girl is bullying and harassing him."

"They were acting, Lila." Nathalie sighed, she remembered quite clearly that Adrien said it was Lila who proposed Marinette does the project.

"That was just an excuse for her to touch him." Lila protested. "She made it so that she could harass him. If you saw what I saw ..."

"I have seen the video of the performance on the school blog and discussed it with Mr Agreste. We decided there was nothing there that demanded our action." Nathalie interrupted Lila with a cold voice.

"But Adrien is being sexually harassed in school, you have to pull him out to protect him." Lila continued to argue her point. "I am only worried about Adrien and what is good for him."

"It is Adrien's wish to go to school." Nathalie spoke calmly.

"May I remind you of the services I did for Mr Agreste? You can't just dismiss me like that. I am only concerned for Adrien." Lila made sure that Nathalie understood what she really meant.

"Mr Agreste is aware of your services. Thank you for expressing your concern, have a nice day." The woman cut the connection.

Meanwhile Jean introduced himself to Sabine just like he did to Tom on the entrance door.

"Hello, I am one of the advisers in the project about prevention of bullying and sexual harassment in schools. Adrien has sent me the video where your daughter was threatened." The man spoke quietly and quickly.

"She threatened him too and much worse." Marinette protested while Sabine patted her shoulder to calm her down.

"Yes indeed." Jean confirmed. "Have you informed the school authorities about the event?" The man asked the two teens who simply shook their heads.

"It was the beginning of a lunch break and I am not sure if this recording can be used as evidence." Adrien replied timidly.

"She always turns around everything we say." Marinette added.

"You are not going to a court of law, Adrien, Marinette, you are going to your teacher and the school principal. Both of you will make a statement and the video is there only to back you up. " Jean spoke gently.

The two kids relaxed a bit.

"Have you spoken to your father about this?" Jean asked next.

"I don't think it is a good idea." Adrien whispered. "I do not want him to pull me out of school."

All three adults stared at the boy. Marinette took his hand. He was just a boy who needed help.

"Are you telling me that part of the threat is real?" Jean demanded.

Adrien nodded. "She can definitely influence my father's decision. As she told in the video, she had that photo shoot and ..." The boy looked at everyone around him helplessly.

"How soon could you talk to your father?" Sabine asked.

"I could make an appointment with his assistant and get a fifteen minutes meeting some time next week." Adrien replied with sadness in his voice.

"Well, it is obvious now why you contacted me." Jean encouraged the boy as much as he could.

"This should be reported to the school authorities first. I have about one hour until my next meeting, I can go with you, young man, Marinette can take one of her parents as an accompanying adult." Adrien beamed at the man.

"We should start then." Tom turned around towards the door.

"The next thing is about your father, that one worries me much more." Jean got to his feet and followed Tom while he talked to Adrien. "So the threat is real?"

"I'm afraid it is possible." Adrien replied with a shaky voice.

"Are you saying that that girl can influence your father and make decisions about your education?" Jean asked incredulously.

"It is plausible. He named her his muse, publicly." The boy sighed. They were going down the stairs. "It was her who touched me, it was her with whom I had to do a photo shoot that made me feel sick." That was much to admit in front of so many people, but Adrien trusted them. None of them would dismiss his claims and attribute his feelings to _teenage hormones_.

Marinette took his hand and squeezed it. Sabine and Tom saw the move and smiled to each other. They got out from the building and walked to the school. Jean was silent for a while.

"We will think of something." Marinette spoke quietly to Adrien. The boy hung his head low, he felt so helpless, he should never feel so helpless, he was a superhero, he could destroy stuff. He felt Plagg in his shirt pocket and he was sure that the tiny god of destruction might have floated away and used his power on the lying brat already if he only had a moment alone to escape unnoticed. He wielded the power of destruction.

"Destruction." Adrien pronounced aloud. Marinette flipped her head towards him. Plagg scratched his chest. The boy was aware that he might give away his identity. "That video might destroy the image of my father's company."

"Seriously?" Jean looked at the boy. So far, the man did not have a celebrity son of a rich, famous and powerful father to represent and defend against his own father. Such cases were rare and ugly.

"Adrien, the image of your father's business is not worth your happiness." Tom spoke from behind.

"You should be more important to him." Sabine sighed.

"Adrien." Marinette spoke gently as she smiled at him. "You are the image of his company."

At that moment they were passing by one of the large posters featuring Adrien in a commercial for the brand products. All of them looked at the add and then at the boy and smiled.

"It is my job to protect the rights of the students and their right for education." Jean smiled. "I can make sure that pulling you out from this school becomes rather complicated and difficult."


	20. Chapter 20 - Add the Noodles

Add the pasta

Mme Mendeleev was followed to the principal's office by the whole class, although she insisted to take only one student with her to the office of principal Damocles. Ms Bustier was already there.

"I believe this concerns you too, Celine." Mme Mendeleev motioned for her colleague to join. Alya and Nino insisted they should both come in. The rest of the class stayed close to the door.

"Apparently there is a video going around among the students of this school to which the school should react." Mme Mendeleev said to the school principal after a brief greeting.

"Actually, it was only me and Alya who got the video, and I think it was not ours to show it around, babe." Nino cut in. Alya glared back at him.

"He is telling the truth, only the two of us got it. It is not circulating around as far as we know." The girl bowed her head.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, Jean opened it and entered followed by Adrien, Marinette and her parents.

"Hello monsieur Damocles." Jean greeted swiftly. "We have met on the project meetings. Sorry to burst in your office, but I believe we are all here for the same issue. These two students would like to report a threat. Mademoiselle is accompanied by her parents and I will be the adult representing Adrien since the actions of his father are implied in the threat."

"I see." The school principal was bewildered. "But the school usually contacts the parent of the student." Marinette wanted to roll her eyes, principal Damocles never contacted mayor Bourgeois about his daughter neither he called in Lila's mother.

"This office is too crowded." Jean noticed as he observed Alya and Nino and the two teachers.

"There is a video of the same threat going around." Ms Mendeleev spoke and motioned towards Alya and Nino.

Adrien stared at his two friends and then frowned.

"I'm sorry dude, I knew it was not ours to spread it." Nino apologized instantly.

"It was me, and I did not spread it, I just showed it to a few people." Alya protested.

Ms Bustier was confused and looked at her students with worried eyes. Ms Mendeleev saw the video and understood what it was all about.

Adrien sighed. Principal Damocles and the teachers were looking at him expectantly. Jean nodded, perhaps he should try to reach his father just for the sake of appearance. His trust in his father plummeted, the boy was well aware that if his father ever learned that the boy was mistreated in school, even if not by the school staff but by two girls that his father approved, he might be homeschooled again. Adrien made the call, but he put it on a loudspeaker.

"Hi Nathalie, could father come over to the school right away?" Adrien asked quickly.

"Your father is very busy." Nathalie's voice spoke from the speakers. He just spent hours transformed as Hawk Moth as he wanted to akumatize Marinette, but might settle for Lila in the end. "Is this about that school project of yours? Why did you have to say that you found photo shoots unpleasant? That looked bad for the brand." She demanded. The adults exchanged a few puzzled looks. Then there was a pause in her speech before she continued. "I guess I could be there in a few minutes." And then she cut the call. She instantly informed Gabriel, and the man finally agreed to watch the video of the presentation while Nathalie went to school. But he sensed a lot of distress there and Lila of course. He specifically instructed Nathalie to send the girl away and keep her in distressed state so he could akumatize her. So he sent out an akuma to search for its prey before he searched the video for timestamps Nathalie marked for him.

"Very well, she is not your parent and concerning the nature of your predicament I should still stay." Jean concluded with a serious expression on his face. Then he turned to Alya and Nino. "You should write a short statement on how you got the video and what you did, not now, you can do it later, your parents should sign it with you." Jean explained the procedure as obviously nobody else knew what to do. "But that is only if the school decides to investigate on it." He looked at the school principal.

"I would like to see that video." Ms Bustier demanded. Principal Damocles looked at her first and then turned back to the rest of the group.

"Yes, me too." The man concluded.

"Very well." Jean concluded. "Adrien and Marinette please sit down and write the complaint, be brief, just a few sentences will do for now, only the main points, you will have to elaborate in more details later when the school starts the formal investigation." He looked at the school principal, he knew he should have used 'if' instead of 'when'. The man knew asking to write detail would put the kids into additional stress and it was not absolutely necessary at that point. The kids who survived that could easily get akumatized if they just remembered and relived the ordeal.

Both kids sat on the two chairs, they both remembered to write the main points about both of them having to leave school. Jean bothered to read both statements and was satisfied, the kids signed their own papers first and then the adults.

"Very well. Thank you very much Marinette and Adrien, you are very brave." The man smiled. "Now, principal Damocles, the school has received these two complaints. You should also hear the alleged culprit that should also be accompanied by an adult." The man knew procedures.

"But Mme Rossi is so busy, she is practically unreachable I could not possibly ..." Principal Damocles protested.

"Very well, the city office can assign her a representative just like Adrien got me." Jean took out his phone and recited the number and the name of Camille. Adrien and Marinette exchanged a glance between them when they heard whom Jean recommended. Ms Bustier and the school principal tried to reach Mme Rossi, but there was no answer.

At that moment Nathalie entered the office, she had her tablet in her hands. She was quickly explained by Jean that Adrien filed a complaint and why he was there. She looked at the text and sent a message to Gabriel. Within moments, the tablet lit up with Gabriel's (detransformed) face on it.

"Monsieur Agreste, I am really sorry to bother you like this." Principal Damocles was speaking to the tablet. "Your son already has an adult to represent him."

"I am his father!" Gabriel protested.

"Regarding the nature of the threat, the student is to be represented by the city of Paris office of education." Jean retorted with a practised ease. "My office has been contacted and help had been requested for the actions depicted in the video evidence."

Gabriel remembered the video of the school presentation where he recognized that Marinette was acting the part of Lila because she did the same at the photo shoot.

"Adrien, I have had Nathalie explain the workings of your teenage hormones to you repeatedly, even I explained it once before. Just because you find a girl attractive, it does not mean she is sexually harassing you." Gabriel stated matter of factly. Adrien rolled his eyes, he remembered those awkward conversations quite clearly.

"I am not attracted to Lila, father." Adrien retorted as calmly as he could.

"Are you talking about the presentation, sir?" Nathalie inquired, she realized they all just jumped into a misunderstanding with Gabriel. "Because this meeting is about another video.."

"What video?" Gabriel demanded.

"Can we see that video now?" Principal Damocles asked impatiently.

"Of course." Jean smiled.

Alya had the video playing the same second. Ms Bustier and the school principal watched closely while the others just stood there as everybody else saw the video before.

Marinette flinched at the first words and Adrien took her hand. Jean noticed and whispered. "You do not have to be here if you do not want to. You were very brave to report this. You, young man, are exceptionally brave to film it and report it and ask for help." The man continued to whisper the encouraging words to the two teens during the whole video so they concentrated on him instead of reliving their ordeal once more. "You can rely on me and Marinette's parents to represent you in the future, you do not have to go through the whole process over and over again."

The video stopped playing.

"The lunch break is about to end, may I be excused to the science lab?" Ms Mendeleev asked sternly. She was allowed to go and she actually smiled to Adrien and Marinette while passing by them. Alya and Nino were shooed to go out too as principal Damocles decided not to inquire further on how they got the video.

Gabriel's face on the tablet was motionless. He was cornered.

"Nathalie, please see that Adrien's complaint is processed adequately." She knew what he meant, that video was to disappear. It was a bad image for the company. Soon after she confirmed she understood, Gabriel cut the connection. He had a butterfly to control. Lila was the most likely candidate, but he expected that the girl would now go after Adrien because of the video, and that was not what he planned, he planned for Lila akuma to go after Marinette.

At that moment Lila was pushed into the office of principal Damocles. She sniffled and whined from the moment she passed through the door. But this time those were angry tears she was shedding.

"I want to file a complaint, principal Damocles. Marinette blackmailed me, she threatened me to change schools." Lila cried between fake sobs. Her classmates hunted her and dragged her to the principal's office. Marinette clenched her fists but Adrien reached for her to calm her down.

During the ordeal, Lila could not distinguish any reliable information from the shouts of her classmates. She was sorry for wasting her time by searching for Gabriel.

"Poor girl, her condition is getting worse." Sabine whispered while Tom frowned. Marinette rolled her eyes at that. Adrien sighed.

Only then Lila took in the whole group of people that was present in the principal's office.

Ms Bustier smiled gently at her problematic student, she always saw Lila as a fragile girl who had to be given more care and attention.

Jean pointed his hand towards the signed statements given by Marinette and Adrien. Principal Damocles stared at the two papers until it hit him.

"You have to write your statement." Principal Damocles smiled proud of himself that he actually remembered the procedure.

Lila smiled slyly towards Marinette as she grabbed her pen and paper, she started to write instantly.

His eyes turned to Jean as he waited for an approval. But Jean then pressed his index finger on the parent's signature. Principal Damocles nodded and pressed the call button again, but it was in vain.

"We can't reach your mother, Mlle Rossi." Ms Bustier said gently.

"Oh, I am so sorry, she is so busy at the embassy wit hall those diplomatic missions and all." Lila sang her usual excuse.

"That is okay, Lila." Ms Bustier smiled gently. "We know how your mother is busy. But an adult should confirm your statement." That information made Lila flinch. But then she smirked, she might be able to take the statement home and persuade her mother to sign it over the weekend. Or she could forge her signature.

"Since Mme Rossi is not answering I propose calling Camille." Jean proposed as he checked the time. He had little time before he would have to leave for the next meeting.

"Ms Bustier, you are so nice." Lila sniffed at her teacher. "Could you sign it for me, please?" She pushed her paper towards the teacher. Ms Bustier glanced at the paper and sighed.

"Are you sure this is how it happened?" The teacher asked kindly as she held the statement with disbelief. Principal Damocles took the paper from Ms Bustier to read.

"Oh yes, I am sure, I wish it hadn't but it did. I am so sorry. Marinette is so awful. I can't hide it any more she ..." Lila was rambling as she pretended to cry. Jean looked amused.

"Lila" principal Damocles interrupted her. "Would you like to see the school nurse? I think you are not well, you are having another one of your seizures again."

"What seizures?" Several people asked at once.

"She had it before, when she got Marinette expelled." Tom cut in.

"Lila sometimes has those episodes when she tells lies, you see." Principal Damocles smiled gently at the girl.

"No, no, no this is not like that." Lila protested.

Jean's face lit up as he checked his phone. "One of my colleagues can represent Lila's mother if Mme Rossi is unreachable, she is in school already." Camille entered the office.

Adrien and Marinette were both visibly emotionally drained of repeating the same explanations over and over again. (This is how it goes in the real life, it would have been just perfect if they could do it just once and then start to recover.) Without even thinking about it, they both retreated towards a wall and held hands to make each other feel better. Marinette's parents were obviously not doing much better, but Tom at least stood between them and Lila. It was Jean who talked, it was him who explained the statements given by Marinette and Adrien. Lila insisted she was the one who was threatened until Adrien had enough.

"I have you on video, Lila." The boy actually smirked.

"What?" She turned around. "You didn't." She whined. "You couldn't do that to me."

The boy then wrapped his arm around Marinette's shoulders. "I could and I did."

At that moment Lila changed tactics and whined about her illnesses and conditions and Camille proposed a solution, she took over Lila case and saw what was the appropriate form of education and what kind of learning assistance this girl needs. Her and Lila stayed with the school principal and Ms Bustier while the rest were free to go. Adrien and Marinette found their whole class waiting on the other side of the door. They cheered and congratulated each other, they were all slightly late for their class, but Mme Mendeleev knew why, they also knew she will keep them in the lab until they all completed their worksheets anyway.

Adrien offered his fist and Marinette bumped it. It was still too fresh for a bigger celebration, but they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lila dealt with her problem just like she did after Volpina, she did not go to school until she was made to return by her own mother and Camille. It was Chloe who suggested to her to change classes or even school.

Bonus (I was finished and then this idea just dropped onto my mind):

"Please Mr Agreste you have to remove Marinette or Adrien from that school." Lila pleaded.

"Why would I do that now? Haven't you removed her once and then got her reinstated?" Gabriel demanded.

"She is sexually harassing Adrien." the girl cried out.

"What?" The man shouted and observed Nathalie who shook her head in response to signal him she did not believe that was the truth. The man remained silent after his question.

"Mr Agreste, are you going to help me with this or not?" Lila demanded.

"Why would I help you? Why would I do anything? Adrien is happy in school. He wanted to go there. He wanted to go to Marinette's for this project." Gabriel decided he would at least get one nice akuma out of this. "You should focus on her, not me."

"You are forgetting I know your secret, Mr Agreste?" Lila smiled slyly.

"I can easily dispute everything you say, Ms Rossi. Haven't you claimed you have a certain condition that makes you lie?" Gabriel retorted and cut the call.

"Are you willing to risk that Gabriel?" Lila countered before she heard that the phone call was cut.

In her final act of revenge, Lila sent an email to the Parisian police. She had secretly recorded her conversations with Gabriel and she attached the one where he instructed her what to do so he could akumatize Chloe (in Miraculer). She accused Gabriel of being Hawk Moth's accomplice or Hawk Moth himself. She explained that she did it because Chloe was a bully and she wanted to work for Gabriel. And she signed the email as Marinette.

Office Roger Raincomprix read the email and listened to the note. "But that is not Marinette, he called her Lila, and she spoke against Marinette." The policeman concluded.

Mayor Bourgeois ordered, personally, that each information about Hawk Moth had to be investigated. He was particularly interested in this one because Chloe was targeted. He could finally clear the name of his beloved daughter.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were called in to help. Both of them promised to help instantly once they faced the evidence received by the police, although they both also struggled to accept the identity of the suspect.

Gabriel protested that he had meetings with Lila only regarding her modelling career. The police could not find any proof in the Agreste mansion that the man was in fact Hawk Moth. With the help of a lucky charm, Ladybug identified the entrance to the lair below the office. Gabriel and Nathalie transformed that same instant, but Chat Noir was so close and quick that he snatched the pin before the transformation was finished. Mayura was defeated quickly, which was good because Ladybug was about to detransform. Chat took them both to Adrien's room where they both revealed their identities...


End file.
